Doctors caught issuing ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ orders for COVID patients with mental disabilities

From Forbes:

A more insidious practice has also been brought to light in which some doctors have been placing unlawful DNR orders on the records of individuals with learning disabilities without prior consultation with the person’s family or carers.

Turning Point, a social enterprise providing health and social care services across over 300 locations in the U.K., along with Learning Disability England, responded earlier this month by producing a new information pack to educate parents and carers about DNR orders and the steps they can take to challenge them…

…In the U.S., several states including Tennessee, Washington, Kansas Pennsylvania and New York have issued protocols deprioritizing the treatment of disabled people in the event of scarce medical resources. 

Additionally, Alabama was compelled in April by the Office for Civil Rights to abandon its crisis management policy of “denying ventilator services to individuals based on the presence of intellectual disabilities, including ‘profound mental retardation’ and ‘moderate to severe dementia.“

Author: S. Smith