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If someone is so advanced in their senility that they require tubal feedings for nutrition, have no awareness of themselves or their surroundings, can we starve grandma to death?
Yes. It happens every single day all over the country and is considered normal. Everything from a yellow "DNR" band on the wrist, simply pulling the plug, or turning off assisted breathing is just as much a part of life as the previous years of the person who passes from this world once it happens.
Can we expose him on a hillside like our forebears?
This is a bit of a stretch -- we might as well equate removing the feeding tube with tieing the sick down in a wooden boat and pushing them out to sea after we set it on fire while we're at it. All indications from those concious after the feeding tube has been pulled report that it is not a painful way to expire, nor is it cruel. It is a method a lot of people decide is okay. It is a method a lot of spouses decide is okay.
If I end up this way at some point in my life and am beyond recovery, I sure as hell want to be removed from life support. Should the government deny me, or my next of kin, that right, then the thousands of people who elect to die that way every day are going to be placed into question.
For a moment, put aside the emotional aspect of this case, which should have remained within the families to begin with before the media blew it up, and think about the legal side that could affect all of our families in the future.
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