Does anyone know of a paper that explains the distinction between the claim that withdrawing life support is in the patient's best interest and the claim that death is in the patient's best interest? #philsky #bioethics - ThreadSky

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chenphilosophy.com • 30 days ago

Does anyone know of a paper that explains the distinction between the claim that withdrawing life support is in the patient's best interest and the claim that death is in the patient's best interest?

#philsky #bioethics

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paulkelleher.net•27 days ago

Do you know of any invocations of this distinction in the literature? Curious what that would look like.

chenphilosophy.com•27 days ago

I haven't. But I know from private conversations that there are people who see a distinction between the two.

I don't see the difference, however.

paulkelleher.net•27 days ago

I mean, there is a difference, but I can't see how it'd be practically useful.

Ex: Someone is on life support, wants to live, but strongly doesn't want to live on life support. Suppose there is a 95% chance they'll die without life support. It may be in the pt's interest to withdraw, but not to die

chenphilosophy.com•27 days ago

I get that, but then that assumes a third option. The situations I'm thinking about are characterized by only two. And I think when people are faced with such situations in real life, they assume there are only two options.

paulkelleher.net•27 days ago

Agree. (That's why I said I can't see how the distinction would be practically useful.)

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