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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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Ethics & Life’s Ending: An Exchange

Ethics & Life’s Ending: An Exchange by Robert D. Orr & Gilbert Meilander. Published in the August/September issue of First Things.

Robert Orr, MD, Director of Ethics for Fletcher Allen Health Care and Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, states that:

The moral debate about the use or non-use of feeding tubes hinges on three important considerations: the distinction between what in the past was called “ordinary” and “extraordinary” treatments; the important social symbolism of feeding; and a distinction between withholding and withdrawing treatments.

Gilbert Meilaender, a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, disagrees:

“Choosing life” does not mean doing whatever is needed to stay alive as long as possible. But choosing life clearly means never aiming at another’s death—even if only by withholding treatment. I am not persuaded that Dr. Orr has fully grasped or delineated what it means to choose life in the difficult circumstances he discusses.

Read the whole discussion here.

Posted by Laura on 02/13 at 01:35 PM

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