[nmh]

Refusing a feeding tube, is not euthanasia when someone is terminally ill or the body is shutting down. Going to heroic efforts when someone is in inevitably going to die VERY soon ... says to me they fear death and are trying to avoid it. They are misusing the term euthanasia for political reasons.

[nmh]

The Grandmother I speak of was 100 years old, bordering on 101. She had DOUBLE LUNG pneumonia. She had made it very clear to NEVER go to heroic efforts to save her life. Well the doctors were pressuring us to insert a feeding tube - she fought it. She began with liquid foods and slowly kept it down. She totally recovered and went back on to solid foods. A few months later she gently died of heart failure. God takes people when HE is ready.

[Twink]

ITA. I was trying to say the say thing.

[Arthur McGowan]

Here’s the Catholic position: You are not obligated to take absolutely all measures to delay death. You may not do anything that is intended to cause death.

This means that one may not refuse the use of a feeding tube IN ORDER TO CAUSE DEATH. One may certainly refuse it if use of the tube is itself the cause of serious distress. One may refuse it if death is so near that the dying person is not going to live long enough to starve or die of dehydration.