Let me ask, why would he drink if he wanted to die? If you say because water was close then I'll say, ya, but food was close too. He drank enough and he ate but didn't eat enough. Miscalculation? Uncomfortable to eat?
I was reading about the IRA prisoners who formed a hunger strike in 1981 regarding their request to be treated as political prisoners rather than common criminals. The most famous was Bobby Sands, who during his incarceration was elected to Parliament. He and several others started a hunger strike to protest their treatment.
On March 5, 1981 Sands started a hunger strike where he refused all food, taking only water and licking small amounts of salt. He took no food from that date. His hunger strike lasted 66 days. Several days before he died he stopped taking water and lapsed into a coma. His weight dropped from 155 to 95 pounds. He died on May 5, 1981.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ira-militant-bobby-sands-dies
It's interesting to note that Sands took no food for 66 days and only died several days after not taking water. I doubt it was a refusal of water, more like he was drifting in and out of consciousness and quickly succumbed to extreme dehydration. I have not read of a post mortem of his body but it would be interesting to know the similarities between MH and Sands.
Making comparisons between the two can only provide us a timeline and even that can't be relied upon, because we have to assume (which I hate doing) that MH was eating at least sometime between his last sighting and his date of discovery. Which probably changes a lot.
I've been on websites related to end of life care and the aspects of dying coupled with starvation. Almost all, without fail, mention the inability to void the bowel, resulting in impacted bowels. However, there is mention that ingesting fluids can ameliorate the situation and can extend life whereas dehydration and death come pretty quick without fluids.
I think at some point we have to stop considering that starvation is something
we can actually relate to, in terms of
our responses. I don't think we can. Because at some point in time, desire and application are not compatible. The subject is too far gone. Applying the logic of someone who has never experienced extreme hunger, let alone starvation, is an exercise in futility. Nothing works properly: your body, your brain, your responses. At some point in time you are being guided by the inexorable trajectory of a corporeal being towards death.
20:49 of Sworn Statement Episode 2.