While I do think death by reserving / withholding care is in our future, this just sounds like a case of a woman who is at the end of life with a family which is not accepting it.
She has fairly classic signs of not wanting to eat, sleeping a lot, not being able to take care of activities of daily living on her own. While nobody likes the thought of dying from dehydration or starvation, towards the end of life the body stops needing nutrition which it shows by a person not wanting to eat or drink.
One thing people do not think about is that the church says it is ok to not place a feeding tube…but once placed it cannot be removed. This can be a loooong time. As was mentioned in the article, when a body does not want nutrition and it is forced (say by feeding tube), a patient can regurgitate the formula and drown in their vomit.
That being said, we really do need to be careful as mandatory withholding of care for the elderly is part of the new healthcare plan. There is a big difference between someone declining available resources and being told they may not have resources which would be available to a younger person.
The comments seem a little vigorous, if that’s what you mean.
