The Ethics of Using Newly Dead Patients for Teaching and Practicing Intubation Techniques

Abstract

An assessment of the justification for allowing physicians-in-training to learn intubation skills by using newly dead patients according to criteria addressing the need for such teaching, the claims of the interested parties, and the results of ethical and legal analyses concludes that the practice is justified and that, ideally, permission should be obtained by advance directive or from the next of kin. Open disclosure that instruction in intubation occurs and is both necessary and important will give patients the opportunity to refuse the procedure; in the absence of expressed dissent, the practice should then be permitted. (KIE abstract)