ABSTRACT
The debates on euthanasia and patients in a persistent (now permanent) vegetative state (PVS) (for the Royal College of Surgeons’ definition, see Chapter 9) have been based on well known moral concepts such as the ‘right to life’, ‘personhood’ and ‘human dignity’. Within the medical profession, the debate centres on whether artificial forms of feeding are medical treatments which may be discontinued if they are reasonably regarded as futile, or whether they are better categorised as part of a course of care for the patient which should consequently never be withdrawn from any patient, because to do so would be tantamount to abandoning the patient and breaching the doctor’s professional ethical duty to care for all his patients.
