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http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/mar/05033108.html - Terri’s death was euthanasia according to a renowned antieuthanasia specialist.

Starvation and Dehydration is not pleasant:

“The body attacks itself; fat, cartilage, muscle, all are sacrificed. The tongue swells and cracks, making swallowing difficult. The mouth dries out, becoming caked or coated with thick deposits. The mucous membranes in the nose dry out causing nosebleeds. The stomach lining dries, causing dry heaves and/or vomiting. Uncontrolled diarrhea could also result. The patient feels the pain. Body temperature increases. Brain cells dry out and die. Seizures start. The skin hangs loose, dries out, cracks, becomes inelastic and scaly. The eyes recede back into their orbits. The cheeks hollow out. The body slowly shuts down. The weakness becomes so extreme that the head cannot be raised. Consciousness is lost. The major body organs shrink and eventually give out. Death occurs. The process takes 1 - 3 weeks.”

This is a General description.

According to one neurologist:

“A conscious [cognitively disabled] person would feel it just as you or I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucus membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death.”

According to Dr. Cranford, a doctor who supported starvation and dehydration:

“After seven to nine days [from commencing dehydration] they begin to lose all fluids in the body, a lot of fluids in the body. And their blood pressure starts to go down. When their blood pressure goes down, their heart rate goes up. . . . Their respiration may increase and then . . .
the blood is shunted to the central part of the body from the periphery of the body. So, that usually two to three days prior to death, sometimes four days, the hands and the feet become extremely cold. They become mottled. That is you look at the hands and they have a bluish appearance. And the mouth dries a great deal, and the eyes dry a great deal and other parts of the body become mottled. And that is because the blood is now so low in the system it’s shunted to the heart and other visceral organs and away from the periphery of the body . . .”

According to Kate Adamson who was starved and dehydrated for a time:

O’REILLY: When they took the feeding tube out, what went through your mind?
ADAMSON: When the feeding tube was turned off for eight days, I thought I was going insane. I was screaming out in my mind, “Don’t you know I need to eat?” And even up until that point, I had been having a bagful of Ensure as my nourishment that was going through the feeding tube. At that point, it sounded pretty good. I just wanted something. The fact that I had nothing, the hunger pains overrode every thought I had.

O’REILLY: So you were feeling pain when they removed your tube?

ADAMSON: Yes. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. To say that—especially when Michael [Schiavo] on national TV mentioned last week that it’s a pretty painless thing to have the feeding tube removed—it is the exact opposite. It was sheer torture, Bill.

O’REILLY: It’s just amazing.

ADAMSON: Sheer torture . . .

In preparation for this article, I contacted Adamson for more details about the torture she experienced while being dehydrated. She told me about having been operated upon (to remove the bowel obstruction) with inadequate anesthesia when doctors believed she was unconscious:

The agony of going without food was a constant pain that lasted not several hours like my operation did, but several days. You have to endure the physical pain and on top of that you have to endure the emotional pain. Your whole body cries out, “Feed me. I am alive and a person, don’t let me die, for God’s Sake! Somebody feed me.”
Unbelievably, she described being deprived of food and water as “far worse” than experiencing the pain of abdominal surgery. Despite having been on an on an IV saline solution, Adamson still had horrible thirst:

I craved anything to drink. Anything. I obsessively visualized drinking from a huge bottle of orange Gatorade. And I hate orange Gatorade. I did receive lemon flavored mouth swabs to alleviate dryness but they did nothing to slack my desperate thirst.

When Terri was starved and dehydrated in 2003, an extensive exit protocal was designed for her to deal with effects of starvation and dehydration:

The caregivers were given orders to compensate for certain phyciological effects the could happen to Terri Schiavo including:

Menstrual cramps
Compromised Skin integrity
Dry lips and mouth
Difficulty breathing - Gasping for breath
Terminal agitation - Uncontrollable twitching
Grand Mal Seizures.
http://www.blogsforterri.com/archives/2007/03/100_hours_of_st_1.php

In another right to die case, one judge distented when the effects of starvation and dehydration became apparent to him:

Judge Lynch (Paul Brophy case) on dehydration:

The removal of a nutrition and hydration tube, wrote Judge Lynch of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, would likely create some or all of the following effects before death.

The mouth would dry out and become caked or coated with thick material.
The lips would become parched and cracked.
The tongue would swell, and might crack.
The eyes would recede back into their orbits and the cheeks would become hollow.
The lining of the nose might crack and cause the nose to bleed.
The skin would hang loose on the body and become dry and scaly.
The urine would become highly concentrated, leading to burning of the bladder.
The lining of the stomach would dry out and the sufferer would experience dry heaves and vomiting.
The body temperature would become very high.
The brain cells would dry out, causing convulsions.
The respiratory tract would dry out, and the thick secretions that would
result could plug the lungs and cause death.
At some point within five days to three weeks the major organs, including the lungs, heart, and brain, would give out and the patient would die.

Terri also suffered in other ways including:

Having her parents be forced to watch her wither away of a period of 13 days.

Terri’s starvation and dehydration also prevented Terri from recieving holy communion (the host) because her tongue and mouth was too parched.

In one bioethic conference after Terri’s death, Dr. Cranford remarked that to not very pleasant for vegetative patients to die from starvation and dehydration and it not very pleasent watching someone starve and dehydrate to death.

Death by starvation and dehydration is only permissable when the patient is actively dying and death is only a few hours or a few days away.

A feeding tube would also not be considered if it is causing undo pain and suffering and if the body can’t assimilate food and water.

In the Karen Ann Quilen case, her ventilator was removed because the family felt it was causing an excessive burden.

When the venitlator was removed from KAQ she did not die and she lived another 10 years in her PVS state.

KAQ had a feeding tube which sustained her for those years.

When the family was asked about the possiblity of removing the feeding tube, their answer was:

“Oh no, that is her nourisment.”

That’s the only reason they had to give.