People with dementia are already being denied feeding tubes, at least, in many many cases, and even here in Washington state. This really is a routine thing in nursing homes.
I really encourage people here to take this topic to other places. This morning a lab aide told me about her mother in law having dementia and how she kept pulling out the feeding tube...and they let her die of dehydration. This is a nice woman, a caring woman, but she didn't think it was a cruel thing to do.( and I did not elaborate either)
I have heard other stories from people I have spoken with along these lines. People who were encouraged to remove feeding tubes from elderly family who walked and talked but simply got confused. Some went with it, some found it inherently wrong, as we do. One woman took her grandparents out of a nursing home for these reasons and they moved, bought another house, and have them living in a basement apt of sorts.
There is a strong need for education out there.
My only recent experiences in nursing homes were my daily visits with my mother while she was undergoing rehab.
Mom was pretty satisfied with the rehab care she got at each nursing home.
Ironically, the first time she underwent rehab because she needed to recover from collapsing due to a low potassium level. She had been following a strict diet for about a decade, trying to avoid dialysis and did not take in as much potassium as she should have. She collapsed in her apartment, where she lived alone. It took her 6 hours to drag herself to reach a phone. It took a while for the doctors to figure out what happened to Mom, but tests provided the answer.
That brings me to yet another thing that bothers me about Terri's case.
The news articles say Terri suffered from a "potassium imbalance" which caused her to have a heart attack. Why don't they tell us whether her potassium level was too low or too high?