Withholding nutrition on the conscious mentally disabled patient: a review and commentary.
A recent important and poorly publicized legal case in California raised the question of whether the wife of a severely mentally disabled man could intentionally withhold medically supplied nutrition from him on the grounds that it was no longer providing benefits. Rita L. Marker has published a detailed case report and analysis. The readers of the Newsletter on Ethics and Intellectual Disability should know about her analysis. A summary is presented here together with some observations about the issues the case raises. Readers are encouraged to consult the original article: Rita L. Marker, "Mental Disability and Death by Dehydration." National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 2 (Spring 2002): 125-36. All quotations are from the Marker analysis.
Veatch
Robert M
RM
The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
D000328:Adult; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic; D002140:California; D003243:Consciousness; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D004750:Enteral Nutrition / Q000941:ethics; D005066:Euthanasia, Passive / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers; D019989:Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D018454:Spouses; D020458:Third-Party Consent