Why is removing a ventilator different than removing a feeding tube?
I think you do ask a valid question....and I think, again, that if you ask different people that question, you will get a myriad of answers....no everyone feels the same about this....many people believe that both a ventilator, and a feeding tube are artificial means of breathing and eating...
My parents felt this way...at the end of their lives, they considered both ventilators and feeding tubes, to be an intrusion that they did not want for themselves...
Other people feel differently...especially when not at the end of their lives...
When my son was in intensive care, there was a young teen who was also in intensive care...she had very bad asthma, and had to be on a ventilator, and had a feeding tube, to feed her while on the ventilator...when she was weaned off the ventilator, she was slowly weaned off the feeding tube...ventilators, and feeding tubes, can and do save lives, lives which can be rehabilitated, and returned to their families...
I guess that for many, the real question, is what state was Terri Shiavo in, and could she feel her hunger and her thirst...I shudder to think that she felt what was happening to her...
But whether any of us like it or not, there are many who consider a feeding tube to be just as intrusive as a ventilator, and there are those who consider a feeding tube to be just an alternate way of feeding someone...its all in the eye of the beholder, I think...
BTW, feeding tubes have been around since Egyptian times with improvements over many years. They have been used to put nutrition into the stomache via the nasal cavity since the 1600's and were used fairly commonly since the civil war. The latest innovation was developed in 1979, and they have been used with greater frequency ever since.