BMJ 1995;311:1502 (2 December)

Letters

Wit hdrawing artificial feeding from children with brain damage

EDITOR,--Ronald E Cranford's editorial on withdrawing artificial feeding from children with brain damage aims to encourage debate about basic medical and ethical principles.1 Yet I believe that the central medical and ethical issues are not fairly addressed.

Firstly, Cranford states that so called artificial feeding is medical treatment but implies that normal eating and drinking are not. Surely this is specious. Tube feeding, whether by nasogastric tube or gastrostomy, is largely done to protect the patient's airway from soiling and for nursing expediency. Moreover, "it serves the same purpose that eating and drinking do, [to provide] the food any human being needs."2 Tube feeding is better considered to be part of tender, loving care rather than to have any therapeutic benefit itself. I am sure that doctors would never want tender, loving care to be removed from a patient. This point is supported by my experience that nursing staff are . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Withdrawing artificial feeding from children with brain damage
Ronald E Cranford
BMJ 1995 311: 464-465. [Extract] [Full Text]

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