In contrast to the extensive legislative and media focus on physician aid-in-dying, there remains little attention on another good path to hasten death: voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) aka Voluntary Refusal of Food and Fluid (VRFF). (But see my legal analysis.)
Helping to address the shortfall, two Swiss authors published a piece in the December issue of the German Scientific Journal of Nursing Pflege (Care). Here is the abstract:
VRFF is one possibility for patients in palliative situations to hasten death and avoid further suffering. By means of a mapping literature review this article describes the medical, nursing, ethical and legal perspective of care for people who wish to hasten death using VRFF. The results show that the wish to die is affected by psychological, social, spiritual and physical factors.
VRFF is a little-known, legal and independently viable method to hasten death. Reducing fluid intake to 40 ml daily, the dying process takes one to three weeks. VRFF can be regarded as a natural death, foregoing treatment or as suicide. In contrast to physician assisted suicide or euthanasia, patients dying by VRFF experience a "natural" dying process and the de cision is reversible in the first few days.
As authority to act lies with the person wishing to die professionals and family caring for the dying are practicing palliative care, as opposed to assisted suicide or euthanasia. Professionals and family involved in the decision-making process are confronted with various ethical problems. Further research concerning VRFF and its implications for practice is necessary.
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