I would like to add that this is not a binary choice. Depending on the complexity of the requirements its possible to differentiate between and even mix the lev

I would like to add that this is not a binary choice. Depending on the complexity of the requirements its possible to differentiate between and even mix the levels of abstraction. I personally like to avoid using ORM by its true meaning (mapping object and relational models) but I like using certain facilities an ORM library might provide, such as session management, user input validation, etc.