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« Hannah and Haleigh | Main | Hannah Thomas »

September 30, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (5)

Outrage of the Week

This from the BBC website on 9/19 :
British "ethicist" Baroness Mary Warnock was quoted in Scotland magazine as saying
that people with dementia should be able to voluntarily end their lives if they feel
they are "a burden to others or to the National Health Service".

Her comments, framed as empowering people to make advanced directives in the event
of worsening disease, instead expressed the view that people with dementia are
hopeless, wasting resources and burdening their loved ones.

What a far cry from the kind of life and growth many of us are giving to people with
all forms of dementia every day of the week! What a sad commentary that an ethicist
would feel that people with this disease should be judged more harshly than those
with any other medical illness!

--Al Power

Comments ( 5)

WOW, How can this woman call herself an ethicist? I am incensed that she would suggest euthanasia as a viable and preferred choice for folks with dementia. Does she also think that that children with chronic dibilitating illness should choose to end their lives because they too "are a burden on society"?

Posted by nicobridge
September 30, 2008 2:44 PM

Well, I beleive in advance directives and DNRs. In this light, I beleive in the same if I am in world that I do not know who I am or what I am. I do not want to be kept alive with tubes, pumps and so on. I do not want to be kept alive if I am (declinist view) full blown alzheimers.

This is my choice. There are certain choice levels of advanced directives and this is the same.

Posted by Joe Podson
September 30, 2008 6:32 PM

I know people with Alzheimer's who say they are living with the disease, not dying from it. A person with Alzheimer’s is now in an advisory role to the FDA. There is also active participation by people with Alzheimer’s in local and national advocacy, fundraising, research and public awareness efforts.
Doesn't sound like they are "wasting resources" to me.

Posted by Cass Naugle
October 1, 2008 5:31 PM

Thanks for the comments!

To Nico - I agree. To Joe - I absolutely agree with your posture on advance directives. I think the Baroness took it a bit farther however, and tried to pass judgment on others' quality of life and potential value to society. An ethicist should know better.

To Cass - yes!!!

Posted by Al Power [TypeKey Profile Page]
October 4, 2008 8:32 AM

Joe, your speak my mind. My reading and experience suggests that the dialogue is growing regarding the options that each of us have to "check out" when we choose. This past week I was involved with a State suveyor grappling with a "rationale suicide" of one a resident living in our facility. My point was that no one, not our facility, not the State, not the family, "gives" an elder the right to take their life. Cass, you make a great point, too. Said another way, our job is to help the elder create a living environment in which they have choices other than loneliness, helplessness and boredom

Posted by tom mondloch
October 4, 2008 11:46 AM

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