TY - JOUR T1 - Current controversies and irresolvable disagreement: the case of Vincent Lambert and the role of ‘dissensus’ JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics DO - 10.1136/medethics-2019-105622 SP - medethics-2019-105622 AU - Dominic Wilkinson AU - Julian Savulescu Y1 - 2019/08/08 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2019/08/08/medethics-2019-105622.abstract N2 - Controversial cases in medical ethics are, by their very nature, divisive. There are disagreements that revolve around questions of fact or of value. Ethical debate may help in resolving those disagreements. However, sometimes in such cases, there are opposing reasonable views arising from deep-seated differences in ethical values. It is unclear that agreement and consensus will ever be possible. In this paper, we discuss the recent controversial case of Vincent Lambert, a French man, diagnosed with a vegetative state, for whom there were multiple court hearings over a number of years. Both family and health professionals were divided about whether artificial nutrition and hydration should be withdrawn and Lambert allowed to die. We apply a ‘dissensus’ approach to his case and argue that the ethical issue most in need of scrutiny (resource allocation) is different from the one that was the focus of attention. ER -