Twenty years ago this summer, I was dealing with two sick cats, one of which had a serious digestive problem the vet said was an enlarged esophagus. He was born with it, although the symptoms didn’t get worse until he was about 11 years old. He couldn’t keep anything down and had lost a considerable amount of weight. My other cat at the same time was diagnosed with cancer of the nasal passage. I ended up putting them both down on the same day, because as the vet asked me, “Would you rather do them both together, or come back in another month, and go through it all again?” Before the decision to put my cat with the digestive problem down, the vet told me that the last thing they could try was putting a feeding tube in the cat. I immediately thought of Terri Schiavo, and how they had removed her tube so she could die, but now a vet was mentioning putting a feeding tube in my cat. I immediately rejected the idea. I never would have put my cat or myself through that procedure.
A good friend's father was hospitalized a few years ago with a heart attack and hooked up to machines. The attending doctor didn't think the old man would make it.
My friend, respecting Dad's wishes to not be on machines, signed a paper approving the de-machining and putting the Dad on "comfort care" which (IN GENERAL) is basically no curative care.
That was ok - that was the Dad's wishes.
The old man pulled through, but the hospital refused to put Dad back on fluids or nutrition because - you guessed it - "comfort care" IN THAT HOSPITAL and for THAT DOCTOR is effectively Terri Schaivo-style starvation and dehydration.
They said, food and water was a medical treatment and thus "curative" and AGAINST the rules of "comfort care."
My friend was stunned. And the attending and her team wouldn't budge - ”you signed the document giving consent.”
For the next few days, my friend and siblings heard from scores of nurses etc that withholding fluids was effectively "the right thing to do"....very Terri Schaivo-like. They also threw in “Dad live a good long life” and “he will never come back the way he was.”
It took a virtual miracle whereby a different doctor intervened, said the father clearly wasn't terminal, and put the old man back on nutrition and fluids.
While my friend's Dad passed away peacefully in his sleep a few weeks later, it was on the Dad’s terms.
It’s also worth noting that the siblings were split on “comfort care.” There WAS a view that it was ok for Dad to dehydrate to death. Someone even said that dehydration is painless; I hear the total opposite during the Schaivo murder.
Euthanasia is, technically, illegal. And I know many people would be OK if fluids were withheld when it is THEIR time to go. Fair enough.
But euthanasia can be made legal if you're not careful with the Fine Print or vetting the "mercy killing" mindset of the attending.