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Susan D. Wilson
Glen Ellyn, Ill

JAMA. 1988;259(14):2097.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—I read with a great deal of interest the article entitled "It's Over, Debbie."¹

My father, age 85 years, has been in a nursing home for more than a year. He is incontinent, has lost his memory and ability to comprehend and reason, and is hospitalized periodically for pneumonia, urinary tract infection, dehydration, and so on.

He has now lost his ability to swallow, and since Christmas he has been fed through a tube inserted in his nose. Because he tries to remove the tube, his hands are tied at all times to the bed rails. He is not comatose but he does not recognize his family and he has no understanding of why he is being forced to lie in bed under these circumstances. I believe that if I were asked to make a list of ways in which to torture people, this would have . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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