Clinical Guidelines for Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)

As the care of patients with serious illness increasingly emphasizes clarifying goals of care, exploring quality of life, and minimizing patients’ symptom burden, voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) has emerged as a topic of increasing interest for patients who face a diminishing quality of life. It is an option for those with serious illness that is legal in every state in the country, but for which there are few published comprehensive guidelines—and none specific to the American medical system—even as public awareness and the number of inquiries regarding this action increase. In addition to the ethical questions raised by the practice and support of VSED, there are also clinical, logistical, institutional, social, religious, spiritual, and administrative considerations for clinicians who are asked to respond to patients’ inquiries about VSED and who discuss this option in end-of-life care. With these clinical guidelines, we seek to provide practical recommendations for clinicians who consider providing support to their patients who contemplate and/or undertake this effort to hasten death.