feeding tubes/life support

[Beth]

In my mind, denying food inducing a slow, possibly painful death, requires a more proactive role in a person's death than does simply pulling the plug and no longer letting life support machines oxygenate the body. I am going through an internal debate, is removing a feeding tube (starving someone to death) on the same moral scope as pulling the plug?

[LadyShea]

My living will states I am to receive nourishment if I am breathing and my heart is beating without machinery.

Pulling the plug on a brain dead person is one thing...they're dead already for all intents and purposes. Vegetative states where there is still some brain activity is a bit fuzzier...to me at least.

Luckily, I don't think cases like Quinlan and Schiavo happen very often.

[Beth]

I know, it is a fuzzy situation.