Possible ping of interest.
It is one thing to go down as the cancer consumes your body, with the pain and all.
But I don't see how dehydrating someone to make their demise quicker is any kind of mercy.
If that is someone's justification, I would rather see large amounts of opiates used.
This quote stuck out at me: "...Hospice doctors are concerned that the use of i.v. fluids gives confusing messages to relatives about the role of medical intervention at this stage in a patient's illness. A drip may cause a physical barrier between a patient and their loved one at this important time. The use of other methods of fluid replacement are discussed..."
For God's sake. Of course IV fluids might give "confusing messages to relatives about the role of medical intervention at this stage in a patient's illness", but unless you are going to actively perform euthanasia, isn't it the damned job of a physician to clearly explain to laypersons why this is not contradictory at all?
DOCTOR: I know it seems like we shouldn't give your loved one IV fluids, but while dehydration will shorten the period before death appears, it isn't our position as physicians to shorten or lengthen that interval. Our job, for those of our profession who have seriously taken and believe in the Hippocratic Oath, is to diminish the suffering of the patient. Unless we are going to outright euthanize your loved one, as one does as an act of mercy to a sick animal, deliberately dehydrating them does not do that. We don't do that to sentinent and aware human beings. Yet."