Complicity in Mercy

I watched my attending forge my signature on a patient's DNR order while the family was still

in the waiting room hoping for a miracle. She looked me dead in the eye and said sometimes mercy

isn't about what families want, it's about what patients need. The man was ninety-two,

his organs were failing, and she knew another code would shatter every rib he had

left. I stood there frozen, my name on that paper, knowing she just

made me complicit in a decision that could end my career before it started. She walked away

like it was nothing, but I can't stop thinking about his daughter's face when we told her

we did everything we could. Was my attending a hero or did she just make me an