Plato, in his magnum opus The Republic considers that the model society must be composed of healthy men, "And therefore our politic Asclepius may be supposed to have exhibited the power of his art only to persons who, being generally of healthy constitution and habits of life, had a definite ailment; such as these he cured by purges and operations, and bade them live as usual, herein consulting the interests of the State; but bodies which disease had penetrated through and through he would not have attempted to cure by gradual processes of evacuation and infusion: he did not want to lengthen out good-for-nothing lives, or to have weak fathers begetting weaker sons; --if a man was not able to live in the ordinary way he had no business to cure him; for such a cure would have been of no use either to himself, or to the State" 1.
Gastrostomía endoscópica percutánea, ética, autonomía, beneficencia, implicaciones éticas, enfermo terminal, futilidad "Digámoslo de una vez; estas son las razones que obligaron a Esculapio a no prescribir tratamiento alguno, como no fuese para los que, dotados de buena complexión y observando una vida frugal, se veían acometidos de alguna enfermedad pasajera, limitando sus remedios a bebidas e incisiones, y sin alterar nada el método ordinario de vida del paciente, para que la República no recibiese ningún daño.