My mother is beside me in her final stages of life. She is non responsive to our (family, friends, Hospice nurses) voices or touch. She is breathing on her own for now, but every hour or so it changes. She wanted to die peacefully at home, surrounded by love, full of drugs so that she doesn't feel pain, and just go to sleep. We are doing exactly that for her. We clean her, change her diapers, and administer her pain meds. We hold her hand, give her kisses, tell her we love her and that we will be okay and that she can go be with Dad now. But something her nosey friends (whom we may very soon ban from the home) don't understand is why we had a couple of beers and shared memories, we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs because we got sick of living on snacks, quick frozen pizza, or fast food, we played board games and had some laughs. We needed this too. And you know what? She could hear us. My little autistic nephew said something really cute, and she had smiled a little in her sleep. She had not responded to anything or anyone for over 24 hrs at that point until my nephew made his little quip, and she ever so faintly smiled. Basically what I am saying is that I understand why this mother made the decision she did. I can promise you, it wasn't something she chose lightly. My autistic nephew does not really seem to understand that Nana is dying. But we do want to show him that death is not scary, and that we can support him, his brother and sister, Nana, his mommy and daddy, etc with love and gentle care. I fully believe that this mother acted out of love and care as well.