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You are right - a feeding tube is not horrible - it is a necessity in many cases. Premature babies are fed through feeding tubes, sometimes for YEARS and grow up to be fine.

Quote: Premature babies are fed through feeding tubes, sometimes for YEARS and grow up to be fine.

However in most cases they are not brain dead vegetables. You are generalizing. Each case is different.

There seems to be this sick inflation of the language, where progressively less-serious medical disabilities come to be seen as "intolerable", as "I wouldn't want to live like that!"

First it was "iron lungs" i.e. breathing machines, keeping alive the bodies of people who were braindead.... and some casual observers say "Well! I wouldn't want to live like that."

Then we have this "persistent vegetative state" thing (which is a ridiculously moronic and unscientific "diagnosis", if you just think about the term for a second).... and some casual observers say "Well! I wouldn't want to live like that."

But NOW, even just being fed by a (GASP) feeding tube falls into the "Well! I wouldn't want to live like that." category?

it's bizarre.

Some fraction of society is, apparently, really really easy to convince that this or that condition, which they (evidently) don't even know much about, is Intolerable and You Wouldn't Want To Live Like That.

What's next?

Paraplegic? "I wouldn't want to live like that."

Blind? "I wouldn't want to live like that."

Deaf? "I wouldn't want to live like that."

I just wonder where it ends? And why some people are so easy to convince that certain other peoples' lives just aren't worth living?

It's scary.