Family for Life and Death: Family Presence during Resuscitation

The dilemma of whether to allow relatives to see or even touch their loved one while she undergoes cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been discussed for roughly four decades. However, Family Presence During Adult Resuscitation (FPDR) is still not widely implemented. In this paper, I espouse relational autonomy to make a case for a clinical approach of family-centered care and FPDR. In recent years, family-centered care (FCC) has gained increasing support. I argue that relational autonomy provides a conceptual framework for both FCC and FPDR. In turn, FCC provides a plausible clinical approach to justify FPDR, while the empirical evidence that supports FPDR provides a useful example to justify FCC.