Richard Doerflinger asks a pertinent 'Life' question of ethicists

Arthur Caplan, University of Pennsylvania bioethicist asks in his MSNBC commentary, “Must we all die with a feeding tube?”, conjured a “cruel” scenario where patients are “forced to endure medical treatment that they do not want.” He says the pope is attacking patient autonomy.

Even in the “tube feeding” cases that have divided families and sparked headlines, the patients generally said nothing clear in the matter; some family members want to continue their care while others want to let them die. Some relatives have said the patient is essentially already dead – an “empty shell” with no dignity.

What does this trend have to do with patient autonomy?

Not much.

If these patients had no human dignity, there would be no reason to respect their autonomy either.

Link.