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General: A Choice Made By A Woman Diagnosed With Alzheimer's

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    • CommentAuthormyrtle*
    • CommentTimeMay 14th 2015
     
    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/magazine/the-last-day-of-her-life.html
  2.  
    A great read! Thank you myrtle.
  3.  
    Very interesting. I just finished reading it before I logged on here.
  4.  
    Very powerful story. If I am able and ever am in her situation I would do the same thing.
  5.  
    Me as well. I hope I would find the support for a similar plan.
    • CommentAuthorAdmin
    • CommentTimeMay 15th 2015
     
    I put the direct link to the story on the home page under Breaking News. Knowing what I know, having seen what I've seen, having experienced what I have experienced, I would do the same.

    joang
  7.  
    Thank you for this Myrtle. I'm such a slow reader that it took me
    two hours to read it, but once I started reading, I couldn't quit.
    • CommentAuthormyrtle*
    • CommentTimeMay 16th 2015 edited
     
    I am of the same mind as bluedaze*, emily*, and Joan. In spite of that, I fault the article for not mentioning an important factor - Sandy Bem's thinking about the morality of ending her own life. We can assume she overcame any moral qualms she might have had, but it would have been helpful if there had been some discussion of this aspect. Many people, including members of this website, have religious or moral beliefs that would cause them to reject such a choice. And then there are those who although not religious, would simply never choose death over life. (My own husband would be in this last group.)

    My overall reaction to this article was sadness and anger that people even have to think about this option. There are few diseases (ALS is another one) that put people in such a helpless position for so long that they feel they have to choose death so far in advance of its arrival as a result of the disease.
  9.  
    I can understand people with AD or ALS wanting to end their life but I could not do it. It's a moral issue with me. The woman in the article did not seem to have that and neither did her family.
    • CommentAuthorCharlotte
    • CommentTimeMay 16th 2015
     
    My mother always said if she starts forgetting like her mom did, she would kill herself with the gun my brother had left with her years before. Problem: she forgot. I wish she had not because the last 5 years were not like would have wanted to ever live. That brother later told me she could never had used the gun because it was all rusted. So, maybe she tried but had no luck. We will never know. For certain is the memories of her vegetating away. She also had CHD which added to the dementia.

    If it ever happens to me, I pray God understands. If not, well...
  11.  
    The article really resonated with me. My husband was also dx with MCI (at 59) and progressed rapidly to AD. When healthy, he always said that if he got AD like his Dad, he would commit suicide. I was concerned, and asked his doctor about it who replied "I've never seen someone with AD who was capable of committing suicide." Fortunately, that's what happened with Steve--his self-awareness of the disease was quickly gone, and as far as I know, suicide wasn't something he thought of.

    The article stressed that the concept wasn't a problem for Ms. Bem or her family, but the timing of the act was a quandry. I agree, how would one know when the time is right?

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