Ethical dilemmas involving tube feeding

Ethical dilemmas involving tube feeding

Introduction

Tube feeding may under some clinical circumstances be used to feed patients. Modern fine-bore tubes and pumps which ensure controlled delivery of the feed, together with manufactured feeds designed to meet a wide variety of metabolic and absorptive conditions, have eliminated many of the common complications and distress associated with tube-feeding in the past. Such advances still have not completely eliminated fears and anxieties about 'force feeding'. To the patient the use of nasogastric tubes may be seen as an assault or an invasion rather than as a form of medical treatment or nourishment.

The distress and upset which may be caused to the patient by tube-feeding should not be dismissed, and was taken into account. In the alert patient it entails the loss of control over the choice of food and timing of meals. The very presence or the tube is a visible sign of a loss of appetite and an underlying pathology, and this has its impact on the patient's self-image. Furthermore, the long-term use of nasogastric feeding necessitates regular blood tests to check that the patient's biochemistry and hematology are satisfactory. Given the risks, tube-feeding ethically requires that the patient be monitored. But the long-term benefits to a dying person of the blood tests may be in doubt (Adolfsson, 2002, 207). If such feelings become too painful then artificial feeding may be rejected. A difficult ethical issue is under what conditions the patient may exercise the right to reject such feeding. If restraint is needed to prevent the patient from removing a feeding tube, then nutrition is being maintained at what may be an ethically unacceptable cost. Patient comfort and acceptance may well be the deciding factor in the administration of hydration and nutrition by artificial means. On the other hand, the availability of the necessary support and resources may be a constraint and it could be argued that this situation is an injustice to the patient who needs and wants the nutritional support. (Wijdicks, 1999, 109)

Discussion and Analysis

Tube feeding is a widely used for Medical Treatment providing nutrition to terminally ill Patients. These nutritional support in Patients or Patients with irreversible neurological create a host of Deterioration Conflicts with legal and ethical solutions apologetic. This work looks at the cultural and ethical-legal basis of These Gives simple suggestions and Decisions That Might help the health care provider in making a viable clinical decision. However, Should Be Treated Each case in an individual Taking into Consideration Manner idealize the rights each patient and of Desires and Their Families.

Is artificial nutrition and hydration a medical treatment or care component for human?

Some ethicists argue that artificial nutrition is a necessary aspect of humanitarian care. Gilbert Melainder poses the following question: "It should be noted that giving food and beverages as part of medical care?”And he answered: "Rather, it seems kind of care that people should each other's ". Some authors claim that, if the patient can feeding on their own, you should up a ...