Аннотация:But having a motive is only one of the criteria for there being an active intention to bring about death.A second, and more compelling, criterion is that, in patients in a persistent vegetative state, death is certain since food is withdrawn.Perhaps one of the main reasons for moral unease in these cases is the inevitability of the ending of life (by withdrawal of food) when this cannot even be claimed to be in the patient's best interests since he or she is permanently insensate.The negative claim that since the patient lacks any best interests the doctor has no further duty to treat him or her does not seem a sufficient moral justification for ending life in this way.
