Starving to death in a hospital bed is a horrible way to die, says an expert on the ethics of death, and it may be time to allow more overt ways of ending the lives of the terminally ill. Wayne Sumner says there is no practical difference between letting someone starve to death, as is now done when feeding tubes are removed, and the more overt act of instructing a doctor to inject a lethal dose of medication to hasten death.
Not everyone agrees. Moira McQueen, director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, says every patient has the right to refuse treatment or food, and let nature take its course. "With euthanasia, you're not letting anything take its course," she says. It is too big a leap to say that because people can refuse treatment or nourishment, they should actively take their own lives, she says. "We all want to be compassionate, but we want to make sure we're doing the right thing, too." Healthzone
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