It is crystal clear that food and fluids are required for life and that
withholding them from a person will result in his death. 2 weeks is
considered the maximum length of time a human can live without food and
fluids, which is exactly how long it took for Terri Schiavo to die after
withholding all food and fluids from her; which was mandated by a court
ordered withholding of all food and fluids even by mouth (against most
Hospice’s regulations!). As George Lundberg (former editor of JAMA, now
editor of Medscape) has said in Severed Trust, “withholding all nutrition
and fluids, orally and intravenously, is a very effective method of
producing death. It may involve discomfort from thirst and hunger.”
It is a lie to try and present as the truth the argument that dehydration or
starvation of an individual does not cause them anguish, pain, suffering,
and eventually death. Those who argue this usually present a patient who has
been drugged to unconsciousness and then “appears not to show any signs of
discomfort.” How convenient. In reality, the medically verified results of
dehydration and starvation are; an increasing dry mouth and cracked lips
along with an increasingly uncomfortable sense of thirst, a heightened
gnawing of the stomach with bowel churning and nausea, a
concentrated-increasingly acidic and uncomfortable urine and urination,
confusion and delirium from toxins built up in the body, sunken eyes and dry
skin, and finally restlessness and irregular respirations prior to death.
It is medical fact and common sense that dehydration and starvation cause
increasing physical and emotional discomfort until you are comatose and then
dead. Yet, those arguing for the withholding of food and fluids claim it is
not uncomfortable and say; that the lips can be moistened to relieve the
feeling of dryness, that food at this stage can be more uncomfortable or
nauseating than starvation (from the starved stomach finally digesting food
again), that once the organ systems fail fluids will bloat the patient
(resulting from the dehydration having killed the kidneys), and that the
patient really “does not seem to be uncomfortable” when he is comatose. It
is argued that feeding tubes do not improve nutrition, help maintain skin
health, prevent aspiration pneumonia, minimize suffering, improve functional
status, or extend life. However, the facts cut through the negative hype. In
1995 120,000 long-term care patients were using them, in 2003 344,000 U.S.
residents used them in their homes, and “Once a feeding tube is removed, a
person's systems gradually begin to shut down”, says Dr. Ronald Schonwetter,
professor and director of geriatric medicine at the University of South
Florida College of Medicine.[el20]
It can not be disputed; feeding tubes (Peg tubes) maintain and support the
nutrition of countless individuals and removing them would result in their
death; would kill them.
There is an attempt continually being made by those arguing for dehydrating
and starving patients to death to get any food and fluids supplied to
patients in any manner other that by mouth termed a medical procedure,
artificial, or termed ‘supplied by medical device’; as though that
automatically qualifies them as being extraordinary and thus optional or
forbidden. Feeding tubes have been around for over a century and despite
attempts to paint them as complicated, expensive, deadly, and worthless;
they are not. Dr. Cervo, Et Al in “To Peg or not to Peg”, “Peg tube
placement…is a relatively “easy” procedure..requires only local
anesthesia…takes between 10 and 30 minutes…may be performed at
bedside…complications related to placement are generally minor”.[el100]
The vegetative state (
www) and coma require our attention as they are special conditions in
which the withdrawal of food and fluids is often argued to be an ethical
option. The person in the vegetative state shows no signs of self-awareness
and seems unable to interact with others or to react to specific stimuli.
The term ‘vegetative state’ is an unfortunate, generalized medical
description coined by Drs. Plum and Jennett which, “describes
behavior…presumes neither a particular physio-anatomical abnormality nor a
specific pathological lesion”.[el30]
Why has this grab-bag, undignified, vague term persisted for a condition(s)
not “completely understood”[el30]
in the field of medicine where more exacting descriptions of illness are
forever sought. Studies are showing the dangers of applying this inexact
diagnostic term, ‘vegetative state’, as it can result in a failure to
further define the patient’s real diagnosis and thus treat him
appropriately.[el31] [el32] [el33] [el34]
As Pope John Paul II said in his address “Life Sustaining Treatments and the
Vegetative State”, “A man…is and always will be a man, and will never become
a vegetable”…”The administration of water and food, even when provided by
artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life”…”Its
use”…”should be considered”…”ordinary and proportionate”…”and as such
morally obligatory.”(www) In an attempt to change artificial nutrition from being considered
an obligatory, ordinary aspect of patient care, which it was at that time,
the American /academy of Neurology in 1989 reclassified artificial nutrition
and hydration as “forms of medical treatment.”[el35]
Approximately 10-25,000 adults and 6-10,000 children in the U.S in 2004 were
diagnosed as being in the persistent vegetative state.[el35]
The “prolonged survival” of such patients depends on “adequate nutrition by
nasogastric or gastrostomy tyube.”[el36]
When it is withdrawn “patients in a persistent vegetative state usually die
within 10 to 14 days”.[el37](i.e.
Terri Schiavo)
A Hasting Center Report in 1983 admitted that it wasn’t because of the
burdens of tube feedings that a push for their withdrawal should be made but
because, “a denial of nutrition may in the long run become the only
effective way to make certain that a large number of biologically tenacious
patients actually die.”[el18]
If it is argued that it is really the patient’s medical condition that is
killing him then it should not matter whether or not you continue to feed
and hydrate him by whatever means necessary. The bottom line of food and
fluids remains simple: they are the basic, ordinary sustenance of life.
Refusing to give them to a human being by oral means or simple tube feeding
kills that person by starvation and dehydration.
Note: See Reference Pages (Food and Fluid Problems) on this subject to view specific references cited above.