Heather Draper

About the author: Heather Draper is an instructor at the University of Birmingham and a contributor to the Journal of Medical Ethics.

It is possible that some anorexics will never be cured and that forcing them to receive treatment will only prolong their lives rather than produce a permanent recovery. For these cases, it is important to make a distinction between decisions about receiving treatment and decisions about the quality of one's life. Although it may be perceived as irrational or involuntary for an anorexic to refuse food to the point of self-starvation, the same cannot be said about a chronic anorexic who refuses treatment because she feels the quality of her life is not worth enduring the torture of forced feeding. Perhaps in these chronic cases it...