Against Offering “Faux Codes”: An Ethically Problematic Workaround

In another essay in this issue of the Hasting Center Report, an argument is made in favor of offering a “faux code” in the setting of a patient who cannot say no to her family who insists her code status remain “full.” Under the proposal, an unwritten agreement is made between the patient and the cl...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Milliken, Aimee (Author) ; Leiter, Richard (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: The Hastings Center report
Year: 2025, Volume: 55, Issue: 6, Pages: 7-11
Further subjects:B public trust in health care
B Nursing
B Deception
B Palliative Care
B faux code
B Moral Distress
B clinical ethics
B end-of-life care
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Summary:In another essay in this issue of the Hasting Center Report, an argument is made in favor of offering a “faux code” in the setting of a patient who cannot say no to her family who insists her code status remain “full.” Under the proposal, an unwritten agreement is made between the patient and the clinical team to withhold cardiopulmonary resuscitation while maintaining a “full code” status in the medical record. The ethical question in this case involves how best to support and uphold the patient's autonomy while minimizing the distress of the patient's family, and the “faux code” is proposed as an ethically supportable intervention. However, pressing ethical concerns remain. In this essay, we offer three main objections to the provision of a “faux code”: the role of deceit and its consequences for public trust, the impact on nurses and trainees, and the framing of autonomy under the faux code proposal.
ISSN:1552-146X
Contains:Enthalten in: Hastings Center, The Hastings Center report
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1002/hast.70027