New thinking about prolonging life of advanced stage dementia patients
This New York Times article explores the ethical quandary of feeding advanced stage dementia patients in institutional care and discusses a new approach called “minimum comfort feeding.”
“The standard approach, which involves intensive work to ensure a patient gets enough daily nourishment to survive, can keep late-stage dementia patients alive for several years. Minimal comfort feeding was a middle ground: honoring a person’s desire for an intentional and dignified death while also keeping them more comfortable than withholding all food and water might.”