Jox, Ralf J;
Black, Isra;
Borasio, Gian Domenico;
Anneser, Johanna;
(2017)
Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking: is medical support ethically justified?
BMC Medicine
, 15
, Article 186. 10.1186/s12916-017-0950-1.
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Abstract
Background: Physician-assisted dying has been the subject of extensive discussion and legislative activity both in Europe and North America. In this context, dying by voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) is often proposed, and practiced, as an alternative method of self-determined dying, with medical support for VSED being regarded as ethically and legally justified. Argument: In our opinion, this view is flawed. First, we argue that VSED falls within the concept of suicide, albeit with certain unique features (non-invasiveness, initial reversibility, resemblance to the natural dying process). Second, we demonstrate, on the basis of paradigmatic clinical cases, that medically supported VSED is, at least in some instances, tantamount to assisted suicide. This is especially the case if a patient’s choice of VSED depends on the physician’s assurance to provide medical support. Conclusion: Thus, for many jurisdictions worldwide, medically supported VSED may fall within the legal prohibitions on suicide assistance. Physicians, lawmakers, and societies should discuss specific ways of regulating medical support for VSED in order to provide clear guidance for both patients and healthcare professionals.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking: is medical support ethically justified? |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12916-017-0950-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-017-0950-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Medicine, General & Internal, General & Internal Medicine, Decision making, Nutrition and hydration, Palliative care, Ethical analysis, Medical ethics, Legal aspects, PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE, HASTEN DEATH, FOOD, REFUSAL, FLUIDS, CARE, ASSOCIATION, OPTIONS, HOSPICE |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Laws UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10158303 |
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