Most of the time, the issue around feeding tubes for dementia patients, is that they refuse to eat. They just quit eating. Have you noticed that old people, usually but not always, get thin. At some point they start to fade, to get smaller. Families are in a fix at this point. Because the person simply does not want to eat so many are loathe to subject their demented older parents to a surgery.
It is not as simple as your post suggests. For some, when a person with Altzheimers refuses to eat and starts to fade away, it is as if this is the way nature deals with it. Terri's case is different.
This hits too close to home, isrul. My mother is in the ends stages of Alzheimer's, and we may have to make this decision very soon. It is a completely different situation than that Terri is in.
It is my understanding that the ability to process and digest food becomes compromised in those near death, and that adding food makes their situation worse, not better. As long as Alzheimer's patients have the abilty to eat and show the desire, they should be lovingly hand fed, but when they no longer want to eat, we should respect the body's wisdom, and not do more harm by force-feeding them.
Do some research on the complications and problems caused by tube feeding those in the process of dying before assuming that Alheimer's and brain-damaged patients are comparable.
Would you want your mother to suffer the potential complications from tube feeding when she would otherwise be comfortable, such as necrotizing fascitis, and many others? I think not.