Feeding Tubes

I mentioned it in an earlier post, and now the topic is back in the news. There's a group, Not Dead Yet, which is pushing for MRI tests on cognitively disabled people who are being considered for removal of feeding tubes. The group is requesting that feeding tubes not be removed when the MRI results show the patient to have cognitive functioning.

Personally, I don't think feeding tubes should ever be removed, unless the person is (to quote the Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz") "most sincerely dead." Feeding tubes are a way of getting food and water into people who are incapable of feeding themselves.

We throw people in prison if they deprive their babies (who are incapable of feeding themselves) of food and water. When food is delivered from a baby bottle, it's not considered medical care, and to withhold it is the crime of murder. When food is delivered through a feeding tube, the courts have ruled that it's medical care and can be withheld until the patient dies, and it's not a crime.

I don't have a problem with removing other medical life supports, such as ventilators, heart equipment, or antibiotics, and letting nature take its course. Sometimes the patient surprises the medical staff and survives without the equipment. But to remove feeding and hydration is to sentence the patient to certain death. Starvation of the most helpless among us is cruel, and it is wrong--despite what courts have ruled.

Now that there is a promising method of detecting brain function, it must be allowed to enter into the decision-making process. This new MRI procedure offers reassurance, either way, to the family members who must decide what to do. And if it helps stop living, breathing people from being starved to death, then I'm all for it.