If a 95-year-old hugely Catholic mother of mine is saying she does not want to eat and doesn’t want a feeding tube ever, are we okay with this? What about water? Thanks much!
If your mother is refusing a feeding tube on principle, just because she doesn’t want a feeding tube, but she cannot receive nutrition in any other way and the nutrition itself is not causing harm to her physiologically, then no you cannot respect her wishes on this. The same goes for water. Only if your mother is experiencing active harm from the food and water being ingested into her body (which sometimes happens when someone is in the actual process of dying) can nutrition and hydration be refused. Otherwise, it is a form of suicide to refuse the ordinary care the body needs to survive. If your mother is in a state where she cannot reason on this issue, then you may need to look into whether or not she is still capable of making medical decisions for herself.
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