An opinion piece from The Times about dementia and the urgent need to look at voluntary euthanasia as an option for early-stage sufferers raises an interesting point.
More than a million of us will have dementia by 2025, two thirds of us women. The proportion of people affected doubles for every five years longer that you live, and we are now increasingly likely to lose our marbles before something else kills us.
As the medical community becomes better at preventing and curing cancers, as they did earlier with preventing and curing infections, life expectancy pushes out and dementia becomes more widespread. Personally I would rather go from a physical incurable condition than lose my mind. For all concerned.
The comments are worth a read as well. I haven't done a count but most appear supportive of the right to die, and many, of the right to be assisted to.
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5 comments:
Well I can see why Winston was against the right to die. If people with dementia could leave the planet voluntarily the number of NZ First supporters would have dropped below the minimum a lot sooner than it did.
I just don't know Lindsay ... there is just so little known about aetiology and rate of progress ... and timing of termination can only ever be very arbitrary. If such a decision is akin to deciding to see a counsellor over marital discord, then 'coercion,' no matter how well intentioned or discreetly executed constitutes a major portion of the motivation.
A frightening thought from whichever direction it is viewed.
If people are of "sound mind' ( I use the term loosely) and want to end their life, it aint difficult.
I suspect people who argue for the right to end life, in many cases, enjoy the headline rather than the obituary.
Dirk
Dirk, That may be but it has to be an isolated and lonely act so as not to incriminate any loved ones. What's wrong with the Dutch approach?
Lindsay you are correct in what you suggest in your blog.
my best friend (desceased) was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Faced with a slow and painfull death, he took control.
With a hose attached to the exhaust of his much loved 48 Ford Coupe he swallowed a bottle of his pain medication and set the motor running. He was found with a smile on his face.
I have often thought if I was faced with the same situation i might drive myself off the Manawatu Gorge in my beloved Cadillac Eldorado and plunge into oblivion.
While not many would mourn my passing, many would be outraged that i had would treat the Eldorado to such a fate. Afterall, it wasnt the cars fault!
Dirk
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