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The politics of feeding tubes

Since the Terry Schiavo debacle, it's been a while since I've seen anything about feeding tubes. But this (interesting!) article points out that feeding tubes are increasingly embraced by institutions caring for the elderly -- even though they do almost nothing to help them (unless you consider extending the period in which dying people lay breathing "help").

Of course, you could blame the increasing use of feeding tubes on crazed right-to-lifers. But, as the article makes clear, the real source of the feeding tube's spread is money.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the "widening use of feeding tubes has been driven by market forces, the aging population, fear of liability and economic inducements tied to insurance payments." In other words, market forces, the aging population, market forces, and market forces.

Which is to say that feeding dying seniors via tube is a lot easier and cheaper than hand-feeding them. Hand-feeding takes a nurses' aid too much time; plus, institutions can get a lot more money from Medicare and other insurance when they put tubes in.