[DoodleDawg]

The Netherlands’ highest court ruled Tuesday that doctors can carry out euthanasia in patients with advanced dementia if the patient has earlier made a written directive.

I watched my grandmother die with dementia, terrified of everything. I watched the toll it took on my mom, watching her mother die by degrees and knowing there was nothing she could do to help her. That is the last way I would want to go, and if this option was available in the U.S. and I had reason to sign such a directive for myself then I would do it in a heart-beat.

[itsahoot]

if this option was available in the U.S. and I had reason to sign such a directive for myself then I would do it in a heart-beat.

Why wait, be a trend setter Dawg?

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

I’m so sorry for your family. I work with elderly patients. There are many things that can be done to assist those with dementia. Unfortunately it takes years of training and knowledge to know what can be done to calm dementia patients without sedating them. Very few physicians really understand and as for families often just don’t know what to do. There is value in life, all life, and I hope you would always choose life.

[Yaelle]

I’d find a way to go the day after the diagnosis. I’ve been dealing with my parents with it for 12 years. However, it is cruel to kill a senior with any awareness at all with dementia. They are like toddlers and they do not know anything is wrong with them. It’s like murdering a child or a baby. Life with them is hell but it doesn’t give you permission to murder them.

I’d say the death has to be undertaken only when the person can soundly agree to it that day. Otherwise it’s too late.