Citation

Moskop JC. J. Med. Philos. 2021; 46(6): 805-826.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Society for Health and Human Values, Publisher University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1093/jmp/jhab031

PMID

34665228

Abstract

Although voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) as a way to hasten one's death is not yet a widely recognized practice in the United States, it has received increasing attention in the medical and bioethics literature in recent years. After a brief review of the broader context of human death and dying, this article poses and examines 11 conceptual, personal, and public policy questions about VSED. The article identifies essential features of VSED and discusses whether VSED is a type of suicide. It identifies reasons why people may or may not choose VSED, and it considers responses by family members and professional caregivers to people who have chosen VSED. It also considers how public policies may permit and regulate or restrict the practice of VSED. Examination of these questions is designed to increase understanding of VSED and to inform moral evaluation of this practice.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Family; suicide; Public Policy; Bioethics; death and dying; force-feeding; voluntarily stopping eating and drinking; conscientious refusal