Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: Conceptual, Personal, and Policy Questions

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...

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Published inThe Journal of medicine and philosophy Vol. 46; no. 6; pp. 805 - 826
Main Author Moskop, John C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published US Oxford University Press 02.12.2021
Subjects
Bioethics
Family
Humans
Public Policy
force-feeding
death and dying
conscientious refusal
suicide
voluntarily stopping eating and drinking
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Summary: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.
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ISSN:0360-5310
1744-5019
DOI:10.1093/jmp/jhab031