Monday, March 21, 2005

An Update on the Terri Schiavo Case

It occurred to me today while listening to news reports on the Schiavo case that besides the feeding of a baby analogy used in this space yesterday, that there are likely many other people who for one reason or another cannot feed themselves.

Consider a quadraplegic patient, or perhaps someone who has lost their arms or just the use of their arms from injury. How about an elderly patient who has dimentia and cannot be counted on to remember to eat? How about an elderly person who has severe arthritis and cannot even hold a spoon or a straw? Do we withdraw all feeding support in those cases as well?

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