Do-not-resuscitate order in COVID-19 times: bioethics and professional ethics

Abstract

Objective: To reflect about the do-not-resuscitation order at COVID-19 in Brazil, under bioethical focus and medical and nursing professional ethics. Method: Reflection study based on the principlist bioethics of Beauchamps and Childress and in professional ethics, problematizing actions, and decisions of non-resuscitation in the pandemic. Results: It is important to consider the patient’s clinic, appropriation of treatment goals for people with comorbidities, elderly people, with less chance of surviving to resuscitation, or less quality of life, with the palliative care team, to avoid dysthanasia, use of scarce resources and greater exposure of professionals to contamination. Conclusion: COVID-19 increased the vulnerabilities of professionals and patients, impacting professional decisions and conduct more widely than important values such as the restriction of freedom. It propelled the population in general to rethink ethical and bioethical values regarding life and death, interfering in decisions about them, supported by human dignity.