I am a devout Christian and minister who has/had the responsibility for the care of my aging parents. Both Mom and Dad have spent the past several years in a nursing home, when it became unsafe to keep them in the home any longer. My dad passed in December, and my mother is in her 11th year of Alzheimer's. For the past four years she has been non-verbal and non-responsive. All her food is pureed and fed to her.
After my dad's passing I found my Mom's Living will which states that she does not want nutrition and hydration to "artificially" extend her life.
I am looking for counsel and advice. I have absolute certainty about her eternal destination, as I did with my dad. I did not/ do not fear the death of my parents, and I am at peace. I am uncertain about the morality of removing food and hydration from my mother, even though I suspect that it would be her wish.
I feel very strongly that this is a disease that robs its victims of control over their own lives, and to take away their final requests, what these dementia victims took great care to "control" in their last moments of sanity, is just cruel and in fact immoral. A gastric feeding tube, antibiotics, or hydration may make us feel better, but simply prolongs the life of the sufferer unnaturally, in a way that they themselves have specified they do not want. How sad. Surely we can give our loved ones the dignity of letting their last wishes be carried out.
Regardless of my views or yours, I wish all of you Godspeed in dealing with this terrible disease.
Before I forget, please know your mom can hear you even though she can't respond. Many don't realize this and talk abrout things that would be better said outside the room. I kicked a doctor out of my dads room because she was talking like he wasn't there. (Old nurses can be b*tchy, can't we?)
I think it boils down to how you interpret the word "artificial". Your mom is still swallowing and that is a normal human way of eating, even though she has to be fed.
I think 'artificial means' would be tubes and IV's. When you feed a baby his meal on a spoon, is that artificial? What if your mother was healthy but had no arms to feed herself?
Now, if your mom is keeping the food pocketed in her cheeks or couldn't/wouldn't swallow, then a decision would need to be made for "artificial" feeding methods.
I was in your shoes a few years ago. My dad had a stroke-couldn't swallow but was still alert. They put in a feeding tube. He had 2 more deviatating strokes and was unresponsive. His body was shutting down and his feeding liquid would not empty into his intestines. If the stomach won't empty its contents, you can't force more in. He died a few days later.
I'm sorry for your mom and you. May God give you the right decisions.