Abstract

I recently published three articles on pacemakers. My focus in these articles was to examine the moral permissibility of deactivating a pacemaker at the end of life or letting the pacemaker’s battery run out. I determined that both—deactivation and letting the battery run out—were morally impermissible. Another type of cardiac device is also often used in treating patients with heart irregularities, namely, a cardioverter defibrillator. I address here the issue of whether or not this device can morally be deactivated at the end of life.