The case of Elizabeth Bouvia: a strain on our ethical reasoning

Society has not reached consensus about the right of patients who are not terminally ill to refuse treatment or about the acceptability of foregoing artificial nutrition and hydration for any patients. Both these issues have been raised by the case of Elizabeth Bouvia, a woman with cerebral palsy whose desire to refuse nasogastric feeding has been the subject of at least three court decisions, the most recent in April 1986. In that decision, the Second District Court of Appeal of California ruled that High Desert Hospital must honor Ms. Bouvia's request that she not be fed through a tube.