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Study Objective: To assess whether decisions about "do-not-resuscitate" (DNR) orders are made equitably in patients with different diseases but similar prognoses.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Three teaching hospitals: a university referral center, a county hospital serving a largely indigent population, and a Veterans Administration hospital.

Patients: Consecutive patients with any of the four following discharge diagnoses: the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (100 patients); unresectable non-small-cell lung cancer (51 patients); cirrhosis with esophageal varices (51 patients); and severe congestive heart failure with coronary artery disease (115 patients).

Measurements and Main Results: Do-not-resuscitate orders were written for 52% of patients with AIDS and 47% of patients with cancer but for only 16% of patients …