What is at stake in calling extreme, end-stage anorexia nervosa a terminal condition? It may be thought to have implications for end-of-life decisions. I will argue that this is a mistake, although one that needs explanation.

Four articles in the Hastings Center Report make an array of claims about  whether advance directives should or should not be used to instruct caregivers to withhold oral feeding of...

In her New York Times article of January 20, “Complexities of Choosing an End Game for Dementia”, Paula Span reviewed the use of advance directives to withhold food and water as a way...

Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: End of Life Care The central philosophical question in end-of-life care is how to make decisions surrounding the numerous choices about what...

“Bioethics” has been defined in several different ways. Most broadly, it is the interdisciplinary study of ethical, legal, and social issues arising in the life sciences and health care. Though...

The United States is an aging society, where one in five people will be 65 or older by 2035. While bioethics scholarship on aging has historically concerned itself with issues...

Edited by Nancy Berlinger, Kate de Medeiros, and Mildred Z. Solomon The United States is an aging society, where one in five people will be 65 or older by 2035....

(Garrison, NY) As the presidential candidates clash over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, a set of seven essays by leading legal experts, economists, and scholars examines the implications...

Paul T. Menzel and M. Colette Chandler-Cramer  Competent patients have considerable legal authority to control life-and-death care. They may refuse medical life support, including medically delivered food and fluids. Even...

Rebecca Dresser In this issue, Paul Menzel and M. Colette Chandler-Cramer propose a novel advance directive. Besides giving competent people the opportunity to refuse future life-prolonging medical interventions, they say,...