Rethinking slow codes: Gina Piscitello, Parker Crutchfield, Jason Wasserman

Rethinking slow codes: Gina Piscitello, Parker Crutchfield, Jason Wasserman
GeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Gina Piscitello, Parker Crutchfield, Jason Wasserman; 10/23/25
I’m going to begin with a wonderful quote from a recent editorial in Bioethics by our guests Parker Crutchfield & Jason Wasserman. This quote illustrates the tension between the widely held view in bioethics that slow codes are unethical, and the complexity of real world hospital practice: “Decisive moral positions are easy to come by when sitting in the cheap seats of academic journals, but a troubling ambivalence is naturally characteristic of live dilemmas.” ... Today we talk about what constitutes a slow code, short code, show code, and “Hollywood code.” We talk about walk don’t run, shallow compressions, and…injecting the epi into the mattress! We explore the arguments for and against slow codes: harm to families, harm to patients, moral distress for doctors and nurses; deceit, trust, and communication; do outcomes (e.g. family feels code was attempted) matter more than values (e.g. never lie or withhold information from family)? ... One thing we can all agree about: the ethics of slow codes need a rethink.