DNR: To Save or Not to Save

A healthcare professional’s primary goal is to keep patients healthy and alive. However, some patients who are terminally or critically ill do not wish to be kept alive in the case where their heart or breathing should stop. In this case, a Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) statement is signed by the patient, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) will not be administered (York 2022). A common moral dilemma that health professionals face is what to do when a patient has signed Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) statement, but their legal representative, most often a family member, demands that they be kept…