For the convenience of the nurses, and because of insurance requirements, a lawsuit if Terri should ever choke on food or water. Same reason you are supposed to wear a seatbelt.
I collect antiques and I own three small ceramic dishes -- one in stoneware, one in fine china (Havilland) and one in pottery. They look like miniature Alladin lamps with a small handle, a long narrow spout, and an opening in the top. I use them to serve pankcake syrup because they pour the syrup evenly and in a thin stream, rather than coming out in a blob.
One of these vessels was inherited directly from my grandmother and the other two I purchased at antique shows. They were common utensils and apt to be found in any Victorian era home up to WWII.
My guests always ask about these pretty little dishes and nobody can ever guess what they were originally used for. They are always surprised when I divulge that they were "invalid feeders" used in households where a member was ill, or severely disabled, or suffering from Alztheimers (dementia), or who had just lost all of their teeth. They were used to feed purees and broth to people who could not feed themselves. They were the 19th century equivalent of feeding tubes.