ABSTRACT
The interesting foray into ontology and ethics raises many more questions than it answers, however. As biotechnological progress marches forward, new interventions are challenging our notions about the difference between killing and allowing. As a general rule, philosophers have suggested that the conditions under which one could justify withholding a treatment are those under which one could justify withdrawing a treatment. L.A. Jansen has offered 3 rules of thumb for helping to judge whether a particular technological intervention ought to be considered a part of the patient. She suggests that there are more serious grounds for considering the technological intervention a part of the patient if it is located inside the patient, has been in the patient for a long time. The rapid pace of technological progress assures us that these sorts of questions will continue to surface in clinical practice. Ethics, as the most practical branch of philosophy, must be prepared to keep pace with these challenges.
