Wit hdrawing artificial feeding from children with brain damage

BMJ 1995;311:1502 (2 December)

Letters

Wit hdrawing artificial feeding from children with brain damage

EDITOR,--Ronald E Cranford's editorial on withdrawing artificialfeeding from children with brain damage aims to encourage debateabout basic medical and ethical principles.¹ Yet I believe thatthe central medical and ethical issues are not fairly addressed.

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

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

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