A Closer Look at Health Care Providers' Moral Distress Regarding the Withdrawal of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

Food as Love: Ethical and Moral Dilemmas in Withdrawal of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration in the Minimally Conscious State

“…Nursing home staff repeatedly asked the hospice workers why they “were starving the patient to death.” Although withholding and withdrawing of ANH are medico-legally and ethically equivalent, family members, religious communities, and health care professionals often distinguish these 2 situations, and admit to a “felt moral difference” while still accepting the intellectual argument that these 2 things are the same. 14 This can be seen in the first nursing home’s insistence that the patient have the g-tube removed prior to stopping ANH, which would eliminate the only mechanism to provide comfort and anti-seizure medications. The provision of food is a form of love in all cultures, and unless counseled otherwise, enteral alimentation is perceived by many as food.…”