eli5: Patients in hospice care are often unconscious due to high doses of sedative drugs, and are given no intravenous fluids, which leads to death by dehydration. Why is this done? Is there any difference between this and physician-assisted suicide?

Question

eli5: Patients in hospice care are often unconscious due to high doses of sedative drugs, and are given no intravenous fluids, which leads to death by dehydration. Why is this done? Is there any difference between this and physician-assisted suicide?

In: Other

Answer 1

To add to what everyone else has said, as the body is shutting down, the GI tract is one of the first that calls it quits, potentially even while the person is still awake. Forcing food on someone with a GI tract that’s not awake can be very uncomfortable/painful. In general the rule at hospice is if the patient asks for food/water, they’re given it. Otherwise they’re not forced