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

Abstract

Objective: To reflect on the order of non-resuscitation at COVID-19 in Brazil, under bioethical focus and medical and nursing professional ethics.
Method: Reflection study based on the principialist bioethics of Beauchamps and Childress and professional ethics, problematizing actions and decisions of non-resuscitation in the pandemic.
Results: Consider careful clinical evaluation of the patient, with an appropriate outline of the treatment goals, especially in the elderly and people with comorbidities and count on the support of the palliative care team, in order to avoid dysthanasia, as well as the misuse of resources and the exposure of professionals to contamination.
Conclusion: COVID-19 increased the vulnerabilities of professionals and patients, impacting professional decisions and conduct more broadly than important values such as the restriction of freedom, but especially making the general population rethink ethical and bioethical values regarding life and death, interfering in decisions about them supported by human dignity.