DOI
10.5406/21520542.35.4.01
Abstract
Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa experience dysmorphic perceptions of their body and desire to act on these perceptions by refusing food. In some cases, anorexics want to refuse food to the point of death. This paper explores the following question: If an anorexic, A, wants to refuse food when the food would either be lifesaving or prevent serious bodily harm, can A's refusal be valid? It is shown that there is compelling reason to think that anorexics can validly refuse food, even in these extreme circumstances.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2021
Publisher Statement
© 2025 Duke University Press. All Rights Reserved
Public Affairs Quarterly (PAQ) publishes work in all areas of practically engaged normative philosophy, broadly understood to include normative work on issues of public concern in applied moral, social, political, and legal philosophy. The journal welcomes contributions from a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches on any practically oriented topic in any of these areas. Topics covered by the journal include subjects of long-standing debate such as abortion, capital punishment, and just war theory; more recently emerging subjects of controversy such as climate change, affirmative action, commercial surrogacy, and the treatment of non-human animals; topics relating to current social movements such as those concerning racism and sexual harassment, and to current technological developments such as those involving gene editing and autonomous weapons systems; and cutting-edge issues that are just now on the verge of attracting attention from philosophers. Submissions of a more general nature that address implications for a cluster of such issues rather than focusing on a single issue are also welcome, such as papers that advance claims that have practical implications but are about more general subjects such as race, sexuality, gender, social identity, nationalism, paternalism, privacy, distributive justice, economic fairness, political inequality, commodification, or desert. PAQ is published by the University of Illinois Press on behalf of North American Philosophical Publications.
Recommended Citation
Director, Samuel. “Of Blood Transfusions and Feeding Tubes: Anorexia Nervosa and Consent.” Public Affairs Quarterly 35, no. 4 (2021): 247–76.
