Ethicist Calls CPR Too Risky in Ebola

October 22, 2014

(New York Times) – The Ebola crisis has prompted a leading medical ethicist to raise an uncomfortable end-of-life question that doctors may have to address sooner than they would like: Should a medical team try to resuscitate an Ebola patient whose heart stops beating? The ethicist, Dr. Joseph J. Fins, says that the answer should be no — that the risks of cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts are too great for health care workers and even for some Ebola patients whose heartbeat is restored.