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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Sorry you are going through this.  Do you mean it is clear that your aunt will not eat or drink on her own again?[/quote]

Yes she has failed a swallow test and is not permitted liquids or food.[/quote]

Let me get this straight:  she failed a swallow test, so to prevent aspiration they want her to consume nothing by mouth, but it’s OK to starve/dehydrate her to death as long as they pump her full of narcotics.

That’s not “death with dignity.”  It’s active killing.

And the idea that a person near the end of life should not get treatment for an infection (which has a palliative effect in addition to being potentially curative) borders on sadistic.

Hospice used to be a good idea when it was in the nature of a social movement. Now it’s a business and a pretty macabre one at that. [/quote]

Op please please do not listen to this person who clearly does not have medical knowledge of this or how hospice works. It is very normal for people not to eat and drink at the end of life, their body is shutting down and often does not need/want/feel hunger and thirst the way we do. [/quote]

The relevant post indicated that hydration/nutrition were to be actively denied, not merely skipped by the patient due to lack of interest.[/quote]

NP. [b]You obviously haven’t been with a person at this stage of death.[/b]This is part of the dying process.

But aside from that, what’s the plan? You force a feeding tube in, and they just wallow in misery since the natural death process will now take longer? [/quote]

There is a grave risk that in making assumptions about and launching personal attacks against a perfect stranger, one will make a fool of themself.

Like you just did.

Without going into detail, unless you are a medical professional involved in end of life care, it is almost inconceivable that you have more experience in that area than I do.

Feeding tubes are not “forced in.”  They are inserted via a relatively minor surgical procedure, after due consideration by the patient or the patient’s surrogate of the risks and benefits involved. People being hydrated don’t “wallow in misery” simply because of that. To the contrary, hydration removes at least the misery-inducing element of dehydration.

In any event, the point is not whether a feeding tube is right for any given person but whether hydration should be denied based solely on a swallow test, when the person is going to die of their underlying illness and the longer term risk associated with possible aspiration is irrelevant.

People are not dogs.  They deserve compassionate care to the end of their natural life. That care takes different forms in different cases, but “here’s the drugs, now shut up, hurry up and die because your condition disturbs me” is not properly one of them. [/quote]

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