My Goodness. From the vitriol online, you can tell that people are quite peeved at the Independent Living Nurse (or staff member) who did not perform CPR on an 87 year old resident. It's quite a story with all sorts of ethics experts and who-knows-what experts chiming in.
As a person who received an A+ in Bioethics in College, I too have a valid "expert" opinion. Leave the poor nurse or staff member alone! True enough, I heard her tone wasn't very loving on the telephone, but who knows how long she may have worked in this sort of environment? Have the critics been around the same amount of end-of-life situations as this staff member? Does anyone recognize the day to day challenges of working in an environment where many of the folks you "serve" are at their last residence on earth?
From a practical point of view, the lady was 87, not 47, 7 or even 77. Plenty of medical professionals know that CPR at this advanced age often does more harm than good. (Broken bones, etc.) Not to mention the oxygen loss suffered in the meantime. Prolonging life at any cost, often causes more suffering than it solves. If you don't believe me, visit a nursing home, or ICU. Nobody wants to die in these places, as they are not quick or easy deaths.
The true "outrage" in this CPR story is the human fear of death. I don't believe it's about this poor old lady (bless her) it's really about--"what if this zany nurse was near me and didn't prolong my life?" Well bullocks. You have no idea if she would have reacted the same way. Do people get this outraged when someone puts their dog to sleep? No they don't, they actually call it humane. (not to say this nurse put the lady to sleep--just pointing out the double standard) People can't think "humanely" about human deaths, for they are so absorbed in their own fears of being extinguished from earth.
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