My gosh, her Alzheimers started at forty? That's just tragic. I hope and pray a cure is found soon. I don't think that diseases that mainly affect the elderly are a real priority, though, do you? They're all too busy trying to cure AIDS, a self-inflicted disease.
Early onset Alzhiemer's happens fairly often. In our family alone it's about 25% of the females. The youngest ever documented (that I know of) started at age 25. I believe it's a genetic thing. I took care of my sister until the last 3 years when it was no longer safe for her to remain at home. But, when we finally had her admitted to the Veterans Home I was stunned how many younger Alzheimer's patients they had. On the floor of 18 patients, 4 were under 60, and 2 of them were under 50.
I do hope research helps prevent that illness, regardless of age. There are many horrible diseases I am sure will be knocked out in the future. AIDS does take a tremendous amount of money out of play in research. One thing I try to look at is that sometimes, a cure for an unrelated disease is found inadvertantly while researching a different one. And, they learn various mechanisms about all diseases that can make cures more attainable. So, although AIDS may be self-inflicted in many cases, it is such a complicated illness, much is being learned that is applicable to other illnesses, too.
How the money is prioritized for various research grants is quite political, and with that I will agree 100%. I also agree that often times euthinasia is committed for convenience, not mercy. The future looks bleak to me on that last one. One is a matter of discovery, the latter is a mind set. The "right" to die will soon become a "duty" to die. I don't like that.