Food and Fluids: Human Law, Human Rights and Human Interests
In C. Tollefsen (ed.), Artificial Nutrition and Hydration. Springer Press (2008)
| Abstract | The experience of the twentieth century bears witness to the abuse, mutilation and homicide of the vulnerable made possible by the power of the state, mass markets, and medical and financial interests. Suggestions for reform of the law regarding food and fluids typically take place in the context of utilitarian personistic “quality-of-life” presuppositions, and interests in shifting legal responsibility for life-and-death decisions, medical research, drug trials, organ harvesting as well as more mundane bureaucratic concerns like bed-clearing. With the Western world undergoing massive demographic change and a growing ageing and non-productive population, it cannot be assumed that these alterations to the positive law are problem-free. By allowing new agents power to require that food and fluids be withdrawn, non-therapeutic research and other procedures (like abortion and sterilisation) be performed on non-consenting patients, novel legislation such as that discussed cannot be regarded as autonomy enhancing so much as a threat to human rights. These laws although touted as progressive, more often than not invite routine abuse and destruction of the vulnerable, obscure accountability and create an inconsistent body of law, with conflicting obligations for health professionals. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Withdrawing water Passive euthanasia Active euthanasia Dehydration | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,875 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJacqueline A. Laing (2004). Mental Capacity Bill - A Threat to the Vulnerable. New Law Journal 154:1165.
Jacqueline A. Laing (2004). Disabled Need Our Protection. Law Society Gazette 101:12.
Jacqueline A. Laing (2002). Vegetative State – The Untold Story. New Law Journal 152:1272.
Jacqueline A. Laing (2012). Not in My Name. New Law Journal 162:81.
Jacqueline A. Laing (2005). The Mental Capacity Bill 2004: Human Rights Concerns. Family Law Journal 35:137-143.
Thérèse Murphy (ed.) (2009). New Technologies and Human Rights. Oxford University Press.
Margaret Otlowski (1997). Voluntary Euthanasia and the Common Law. Clarendon Press.
David W. Meyers (1990). The Human Body and the Law. Stanford University Press.
Anne J. Davis (1991). Nurses and Physicians on Nutritional Support: A Comparison. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (3).
Helga Kuhse (1986). Death by Non-Feeding: Not in the Baby's Best Interests. Journal of Medical Humanities and Bioethics 7 (2):79-90.
Jacqueline A. Laing (2013). Infanticide: A Reply to Giubilini and Minerva. Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (5):336-340.
Jacqueline A. Laing (2012). Institutionalising Murder. Halsbury's Law Exchange.
Analytics
Monthly downloads
Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
|
Added to index2012-09-15Total downloads0Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
