Cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the frail elderly: clinical, ethical and halakhic issues

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emotion-ridden issue that often leads to conflicts when crucial decisions have to be made. The purported benefits of this 40 year old procedure in the frail elderly have been scrutinized, establishing its lack of efficacy. A review of the medical, ethics and halakhic literature on the potential merits of CPR in the frail elderly revealed that in secular medical practice, CPR is often routinely provided to elderly frail individuals for whom its clinical benefit is questionable. For patients suffering from dementia, surrogates are usually responsible for decision making, which complicates the process. With such poor clinical outcomes, the halakhic interpretation of what steps should be taken, and currently are, may not be valid and CPR may be applied too frequently. When clinical ambiguity is combined with strong cultural and religious influences, an acceptable CPR/DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) approach to cardiac arrest can be daunting. A clinically responsible, ethically sound and religiously sensitive approach to CPR requires a deep understanding of the factors involved in decision making. It seems timely for the halakhic interpretation of the duty to provide CPR in the frail elderly to be reevaluated. Perhaps a more humane and halakhically sound approach might be reached by stringently limiting CPR to clinically unusual circumstances rather than the common practice of providing frail Jewish elders with CPR in the absence of a DNR order.