Presently I am dealing with an issue of a fairly young woman (around 50) with end-stage MS who is not eating or drinking much. She can communicate using yes and no answers and has clearly told the staff at her nursing facility she does not want to be tube fed. However, her adult daughter is her guardian and she wants to save her mom at all costs. The patient emphatically does not want tube feeding but her daughter is planning to have a tube placed against her mother's wishes. The patient's daughter says it is her right as her mother's legal guardian to make that decision.
As a medical professional looking clinically at the situation, it is upsetting that this daughter is over-riding her mother's wishes. However, as a daughter, I understand her reluctance to let nature take its course, despite the fact that she has a terminal diagnosis.
This case raises lots of interesting "food for thought" for doctors, dietitians, nurses, and any of us who will face this type of decision at some point in their life.
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