Some bioethical theories, including the teaching of the Catholic Church, distinguish ordinary and extraordinary care. Ordinary care is always obligatory. Extraordinary care is care whose provision involves a disproportionately great burden on the patient or community, and hence is not morally obligatory.
On the Catholic version of the distinction, the natural provision of life necessities, such as food, air, and water, is an example of ordinary care, although it does not exhaust ordinary care, since easily performed medical procedures (that do not impose an undue burden on patient and community) will also be ordinary care.
Famous quotes containing the words ordinary and/or care:
“I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
“Henry B. Adams was the first in an infinite series to discover and admit to himself that he really did not care whether truth was, or was not, true. He did not even care that it should be proved true, unless the process were new and amusing. He was a Darwinian for fun.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)