Just had to go through this with my mom who fell and suffered a brain aneurysm and she was effectively brain dead within an hour.
For the most part her body was fine but she was non-responsive and the part of her brain regulating breathing had been damaged so that she required a breathing machine.
Mom had always wanted to have her life prolonged if need be and I flew down ready to put up a fight to see that through if I had to, but she was effectively gone already and we pulled the breathing machine. She passed 48 hours later.
It was different for my grandmother who had had a stroke and had some cognitive ability but couldn’t swallow. So my uncle had a feeding tube out in and she was with us for another 6 months under steady decline and several nursing homes. With hindsight my uncle isn’t sure he would’ve gone ahead with the feeding tube as her life wasn’t much in that last 6 months but also was happy that he felt he had done all he could to prolong her life.
No easy answers - but we should defend life when we can. That makes it valuable.
“It was different for my grandmother who had had a stroke and had some cognitive ability but couldn’t swallow.”
Exactly same to my 95 year old uncle. Doctor asked if he wanted a feeding tube. He had some communication and said NO No No shaking his head no
Told doctor to bring him a gun so he could shoot himself.
MY uncle was an old WWII battlefield survivor who was severely wounded and knew what death was about - not afraid of it.