Feeding tubes, slippery slopes, and physician-assisted suicide.

In the past few years, articles in the New England Journal of Medicine,' the Journal ofthe American Medical Association,^ and the Journal ofthe American Geriatrics Society^ have suggested that feeding tubes are substantially overused in patients with advanced dementia or other serious illnesses. Contrary to common understanding, artificial feeding often does not improve the patient's nutrition or ability to function,'' The feeding tube, in fact, may not be providing any benefit to the patient in terms of length or quality of life. Although the overuse of feeding tubes is troubling in some respects, it is reassuring in one important way. It indicates that slippery slope concerns about the "right to die" may be exaggerated. Some commentators resisted on slippery slope grounds the recognition of a right for patients to forgo artificial nutrition and hydration. According to those commentators, laws permitting