Minimal Comfort Feeding (MCF) - Advantages over VSED & CFO

Most patients who want to avoid living into late-stage dementia would like access either to MAID (as in Canada or perhaps soon in California) or to a MAID advance directive (as in Quebec, Netherlands, Spain). But U.S. dementia patients lack such access today.    

Consequently, VSED and VSED advance directives remain a key way to avoid living into late-stage dementia. We recently offered a new alternative: minimal comfort feeding (MCF). Caregivers provide minimal food and drink in response to signs of hunger or thirst. This alleviates not only the patient's discomfort but also discomfort of their caregivers. While MCF entails more eating and drinking than VSED, it is still less than the patient needs. So, it still accomplishes the patient's goal of not living into late-stage dementia.

Predictably, publications like National Review attack MCF. But they attack all modes of "dehydrating dementia patients to death." They opposes this even when those very patients make an informed and voluntary choice to hasten their death in that way.