Is prolonging his life by extraordinary means going to lead to his full recovery or the inevitable, “failure to thrive” on his death certificate going to be pushed down the road by machine-driven feeding, breathing, heart-beating?
We’re all going to die, but there is no excuse for withholding something as basic as food and water. There is no gray area between life and death. You are either alive or dead. As long as you’re alive, you should be treated as such. You’re entitled to food, water, pain relief, etc. You should be treated with compassion, not tortured to death. You should not be neglected and forgotten by your loved ones. You should not be forcibly removed from the caregiver who loves you, and deprived of whatever life you have remaining.
Your final days may not be as enjoyable as the earlier days, when you were active and vibrant, but they’re all you have left. They should not be thrown away, as though they have no value.