Christian Worldview Concepts

Feeding Tubes and End-of-Life Decision Making

Brain Damage as Loss of Life

If a patient is severely brain damaged, is a feeding tube a "useless medical treatment?" This was one of the claims made by Michael Schiavo's (Terri's husband) attorney. What makes tube feeding "useless?" It was useless inasmuch as it would make no contribution to Terri's recovery. But this assessment begs the question. Tube feeding is not a medical therapy; it is basic care. Food and fluids are not provided for their medicinal benefits; they are basic to human existence, and without them people die, regardless of how ill or healthy they might be.

Withdrawing or withholding food and fluids solely because a person is severely brain damaged but is otherwise healthy could only be interpreted as intending that person's death, thus making the act a form of euthanasia. If being severely and/or permanently brain damaged warrants starvation and dehydration, there will be many more that will travel this roadbed of medical tyranny.