Will We Care For or Kill Dementia Patients?
advance directive, Alzheimer’s disease, antibiotics, bioethics, burden, dementia, dementia patients, doula, hospice, killing, Medicine, nursing, palliative care, patients, Suffering, suicide, Thaddeus Mason Pope
I understand that people are terrified of dementia. Believe me, I get it. My mother died of Alzheimer’s. But I can’t wrap my head around the fact that advocacy for killing/suicide as the answer to the difficulties caused by the condition is becoming ubiquitous. Noted bioethicist and lawyer Thaddeus Mason Pope has written an essay, to be published in an edited volume, on this very issue. It lists eleven ways people can “avoid late-stage dementia,” and almost all involve intentionally ending life. Remember when we were told that advance medical directives are the key to not receiving life-extending treatment one does not want? They are, but that’s not good enough for Pope, because it doesn’t guarantee death: This strategy is Read More › Source