Is my friend being Euthanized today?

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graceandglory

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My friend had a stroke 3 months ago. She will not regain her earlier life. She is breathing on her own, but needs a feeding tube. She pulled her feeding tube out. She is not dying. She is stable and was in a rehabilitation center. Her husband decided to not have the feeding tube replace, and moved her into a hospice. The hospice/nursing home happens to be Catholic; however my friend is an evangelical, not a Catholic. They prayed for 2 months for her to be completely healed. That didn’t happen. Now they have put her to sleep in a coma, so that she would not be aware (I think of starving to death), and she is going to die (I think of starvation.)

I feel really uneasy about this. I know she will not regain her former active, athletic life as a Dr. but is it okay to not replace her feeding tube?

Is this a gray area? She needs a feeding tube to live, but they have made the decision to not put it back in. OH, and she is diagnosed as minimally conscious.
 
This is no gray area. It is a moral imperative to provide water and nutrition. The case of a G tube could be considered extraordinary measure.
 
Cristiano said:
This is no gray area. It is a moral imperative to provide water and nutrition. The case of a G tube could be considered extraordinary measure.
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There actually is SOME gray area. From the National Catholic Bioethics Center:
When death is imminent one may refuse forms of treatment that would only result in a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life. There is a presumption in favor of continuing to provide food and water to the patient, but there is a stage in the dying process when even these may no longer be obligatory because they provide no benefit.
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ncbcenter.org/page.aspx?pid=347
 
You might take a look at the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration. The attached Commentary is particularly helpful. This question is specifically about those in a “vegetative state”, but the principles laid out have wider implications.

Marc mentioned the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Feel free to contact them. They will be able to talk you through the whole thing much more thoroughly than we are able to do here.
 
graceandglory said:
My friend had a stroke 3 months ago. She will not regain her earlier life. She is breathing on her own, but needs a feeding tube. She pulled her feeding tube out. She is not dying. She is stable and was in a rehabilitation center. Her husband decided to not have the feeding tube replace, and moved her into a hospice. The hospice/nursing home happens to be Catholic; however my friend is an evangelical, not a Catholic. They prayed for 2 months for her to be completely healed. That didn’t happen. Now they have put her to sleep in a coma, so that she would not be aware (I think of starving to death), and she is going to die (I think of starvation.)

I feel really uneasy about this. I know she will not regain her former active, athletic life as a Dr. but is it okay to not replace her feeding tube?

Is this a gray area? She needs a feeding tube to live, but they have made the decision to not put it back in. OH, and she is diagnosed as minimally conscious.
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I think this is terrible, and the worst part about it is that you can do nothing to help your friend. Pray for her! I will add her to my prayers too. I guess her husband thinks she wants to die, and that is why she pulled out the feeding tube? That may have been an accident, not done with any conscious intention. How sad.

Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women
And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.
 
graceandglory said:
Please help me understand. I am trying to wrap my mind around this. Her death was not imminent. Her quality of life would have been “burdensome.” She would have needed to have care, for she would be bedridden.
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A feeding tube is much different than other forms of “extraordinary care”. We’re talking about food and water, not medicine. Everyone needs food and water to live. Starving someone to death is not compatible with respecting the dignity of the human person.
 
Let me try to be clearer. She wasn’t terminally ill. She isn’t dying, she wasn’t on life support. She is quadriplegic, and not presently able to talk, but was told that she could regain some function.

Caring for her would be “a burden” in that someone would have to feed her, change her, bathe her, dress her.

Thank you all for any insight. My gut tells me that her husband does not want a less than perfect wife. He said “she would not have wanted “this life.””
 
graceandglory said:
Let me try to be clearer. She wasn’t terminally ill. She isn’t dying, she wasn’t on life support. She is quadriplegic, and not presently able to talk, but was told that she could regain some function.

Caring for her would be “a burden” in that someone would have to feed her, change her, bathe her, dress her.

Thank you all for any insight. My gut tells me that her husband does not want a less than perfect wife. He said “she would not have wanted “this life.””
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Of course, no one would want that sort of life. But that doesn’t justify taking it.
 
mgoforth said:
The description of the patient’s condition in the OP doesn’t seem to fit the reference you posted.
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No. I was just pointing out that there is indeed a gray area where a feeding tube is concerned. Saying that there isn’t any is something I hear a lot but isn’t technically true.
 
graceandglory said:
My friend had a stroke 3 months ago. She will not regain her earlier life. She is breathing on her own, but needs a feeding tube. **She pulled her feeding tube out. ** She is not dying. She is stable and was in a rehabilitation center. Her husband decided to not have the feeding tube replace, and moved her into a hospice. The hospice/nursing home happens to be Catholic; however my friend is an evangelical, not a Catholic. They prayed for 2 months for her to be completely healed. That didn’t happen. Now they have put her to sleep in a coma, so that she would not be aware (I think of starving to death), and she is going to die (I think of starvation.)

I feel really uneasy about this. I know she will not regain her former active, athletic life as a Dr. but is it okay to not replace her feeding tube?

Is this a gray area? She needs a feeding tube to live, but they have made the decision to not put it back in. OH, and she is diagnosed as minimally conscious.
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Did she pull the feeding tube out because she didn’t want it? You can’t force someone to have a feeding tube. If she doesn’t want it, she doesn’t want it.

You may also not know all of what is happening with her care. To say she is stable doesn’t mean that she doesn’t need to be in hospice or even that death isn’t imminent. In fact, stable isn’t normally used to define a condition.
 
Marc_Anthony said:
No. I was just pointing out that there is indeed a gray area where a feeding tube is concerned. Saying that there isn’t any is something I hear a lot but isn’t technically true.
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It’s not really a grey area.

If someone is going to starve to death without a feeding tube but will live with it, you put in a feeding tube. I’ve nursed a motorcycle victim who had a stoma and a feeding tube and had been in a vegetative state for a few years. The family would never think to take away his feeding tube although he was pretty much unresponsive. His vital signs were fine and unless he contracted a massive infection he was expected to live for many years. Removing his feeding tube would have been no different from putting a bullet through his head.

On the other hand, if someone is terminal and is at the stage where they can no longer take food, you don’t burden them with a feeding tube to maybe prolong death by a couple of days. No longer taking in food is part of the dying process.
 
graceandglory said:
Thank you all for any insight. My gut tells me that her husband does not want a less than perfect wife. He said “she would not have wanted “this life.””
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From what you’ve written, if this is his intention, I would say he chose to euthanize her. I worked in hospice for several years as an aide, and there are times when a feeding tube is not used out of compassion towards the person’s immediate comfort. For example, when a person’s body is shutting down (“active death.”), the act of digestion can actually bring them more pain and suffering. There are other factors, however. I’m not sure how invasive it is to replace the feeding tube. Some go down the throat, others are inserted through the belly. Even if the person’s vital signs are presently stable, I think it could be argued that there are cases where the risk of causing her suffering by the procedure could merit not replacing the tube. Physical pain, risk of infection, if the procedure involved in replacing the tube carried a high risk of death, etc. But if the only reason to not replace the tube is to avoid the difficult life of living as a quadriplegic, that is not sufficient reason to withhold food and water. This is my opinion, based on what I’ve read and experienced through the years.

I pray for your friend, her husband, and you. May the Mercy of God open our hearts to see and act on His Holy Will. Whatever happens, may your friend be blessed with the Graces she needs for this life and the life to come.
 
GraceandGlory,
This is a difficult situation by any standard.
The fact that they are non-Catholic makes answering the question even more difficult.

About the only advice I can offer to you is to pray for several things.
That your friend have a peaceful death and be welcomed into Jesus arms.
That your friend’s husband is truly trying to do the right thing by his wife…That God grant him wisdom.
That you, in pondering these things, will be better equipped to understand and apply them if and when you find yourself in some similar circumstance.

Wish I could offer more…

Peace
James
 
graceandglory said:
Please help me understand. I am trying to wrap my mind around this. Her death was not imminent. Her quality of life would have been “burdensome.” She would have needed to have care, for she would be bedridden.
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Do you know if she had left directives, herself, of what she wanted done in these circumstances? I have such a document I carry with me and is filed in my doctor’s office and my daughter has a copy. I would want exactly what you describe in similar circumstances. Death is okay, it’s our way of moving on to the next part of our lives. Having this modern technology to extend the animation of a body seems so unnatural, like going against God’s Will.
 
Julia_Mae said:
Do you know if she had left directives, herself, of what she wanted done in these circumstances? I have such a document I carry with me and is filed in my doctor’s office and my daughter has a copy. I would want exactly what you describe in similar circumstances. Death is okay, it’s our way of moving on to the next part of our lives. Having this modern technology to extend the animation of a body seems so unnatural, like going against God’s Will.
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The problem is that when people withhold nutrition and hydration in order to cause death, they are committing a mortal sin. They may not be mortally culpable, but it is a mortal sin which is being committed.
 
graceandglory said:
My friend had a stroke 3 months ago. She will not regain her earlier life. She is breathing on her own, but needs a feeding tube. She pulled her feeding tube out. She is not dying. She is stable and was in a rehabilitation center. Her husband decided to not have the feeding tube replace, and moved her into a hospice. The hospice/nursing home happens to be Catholic; however my friend is an evangelical, not a Catholic. They prayed for 2 months for her to be completely healed. That didn’t happen. Now they have put her to sleep in a coma, so that she would not be aware (I think of starving to death), and she is going to die (I think of starvation.)

I feel really uneasy about this. I know she will not regain her former active, athletic life as a Dr. but is it okay to not replace her feeding tube?

Is this a gray area? She needs a feeding tube to live, but they have made the decision to not put it back in. OH, and she is diagnosed as minimally conscious.
Click to expand...
We cannot say for sure what is happening with yoir friend: there may be other issues involved. What concerns me is that this is happening in a Catholic hospice. Either they are acting in a way they shouldn’t, or there are aspects of your friend’s condituon which are unknown.
 
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