This happens all the time when it comes to these sort of cases.
Terri Schiavo was NOT terminally ill ..all she required for sustenance was nutrients and water. Terri Schiavo was sentenced to her terminal illness: the most shocking and reprehensible 13-day torture of agonizing death by starvation and dehydration I've ever observed. This despicable chapter will not be forgotten. Millions of us have deeply pierced hearts at the barbaric obscenity of the suffering and the court-sanctioned murder wrought in the last two weeks. God help us all.
No, this does not happen. The tube may not be used anymore. Or not placed. If it becomes clogged, or it may not be replaced. But, I have worked with hospice for years, no one I know would initiate a medical procedure to remove the tube. What would be the purpose?
Most certainly, no one I know would have cooperated with denying her ice chips or sips of water, as Schiavo did for years and as he did the last 2 weeks of her life. I cannot imagine having law enforcement threaten to arrest a mother who wished to place water in her "terminal" daughter's mouth. And I would consider it murder to do so in light of the fact that the patient did not need regular suctioning for her saliva and sinus secretions.
As a matter of fact, most often those secretions become a very real problem at the end of life, when the patient truly can't swallow or when the nausea and vomitting caused by them is non-stop. In those cases, we routinely administer scopoamine patches because of the side effect of dry mouth, which is a relief of the other symptoms.