You're right, giving a person increasing amounts of morphine while depriving hydration and nutrition IS proactively killing them.
Before feeding tubes existed, many people, including my grandfather, passed away because they could not take in enough nutrition to maintain life.
Feeding tubes have been in use for over five centuries, the only real advancement is non-allergenic plastics.
Both put human beings into the role of being God. I am completely pro-life but if anyone stuck a feeding tube into me when God was trying to take me home, I’d be livid and my family is well aware of my wishes!
So, using medical advances that God allowed us to develop is "being God."?
If your child had a ruptured appendix would you take them to the hospital to have it removed or is that "being God"?
Have you ever taken antibiotics or is that "being God"?
What about blood pressure medication, vitamins, checking blood pressure and cholesterol levels, do you do any of this or is that also "being God"?
I am sorry for your loss - it is never easy to lose a parent.
I'm not the author of this.
There is absolutely no comparison to having an appendix removed or taking antibiotics with what I was describing as acting like God. I am thankful for and completely appreciate the medical advances which allow someone who is ill to recover and continue with their life.
What I was specifically addressing was people who are unable to let a loved one go and insist upon every possible medical intervention, no matter how invasive or uncomfortable it may be. My husband is a firefighter/EMT and he has been made physically ill by being forced to do CPR on people who are in their 90s, have terminal cancer and dementia, but the families demand, “Save him!”. The poor patient is put through massive trauma simply to restart a heart that was trying to stop...that’s what I was referring to in my post.
I do not know all of the facts surrounding this woman’s death - if we were able to hear from the son and the older daughter, we might have gotten a different set of facts. I have a dear friend who was the only one to accept that his mother was dying of congestive heart failure - his siblings were in denial and kept insisting that she just needed her “meds regulated”. When the mother did pass away, he was the only one who had said his goodbyes. Maybe the mother in this story had an advance directive and they were following HER wishes. The daughter indicates that she had a mild stroke - but maybe it was more than that. Stroke recovery/therapy at that age is extremely difficult and would have been exacerbated by her dementia.
I am really not trying to provoke a fight but I felt like there were details that this article didn’t include and I don’t think the issue is quite as black and white as the author painted it.