Dementia and Alzheimer’s Patients Ask for Physician-Assisted Suicide
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/16
CTV News reported on the dementia and Alzheimer’s sufferers that are asking for “the right to consent to doctor-assisted suicide” or physician-assisted suicide.
The concern is the development of the diseases as they eventually destroy “their ability to walk, talk and think.” Currently, in Canada, it is against the law for a physician-assisted suicide. Of the provinces and territories to consider making this practice legal of this, Quebec is the first to “consider this controversy or proposal.”
“One of its supporters is Quebec politician Francois Bonnardel, who watches helplessly as Alzheimer’s slowly destroys the mind and body of his mother, Yolande Tremblay.”
Bonnardel is seen as a “frontman” for the push by Quebec to advance this controversial cause of physician-assisted suicide or “doctor-assisted suicide.”
According to the CEO of Dying with Dignity Canada, Shanaaz Gokool, “There is a provincial government that is willing to address this critical issue that so many Canadians, 80 per cent, support advance consent for a diagnosis like dementia.”
One woman’s family, Jocelyne Lizotte’s family, wants the option. She had Alzheimer’s, but was “denied a medically assisted death. She made a request to the husband: to kill her. Now, Michel Cadotte, who is 55-years-old, has “been charged with second-degree murder.”
Although, some organisations and individuals support the idea. Others do not support doctor-assisted suicide. The Canadian Alzheimer’s Society is against the idea. One representative, Line Vincelli, reports and believes that offering assisted death can put “the vulnerable at great risk.”
There was a study, which prompted the Quebec to study the issue of advance consent and whether it “should be allowed.”
Some dementia and Alzheimer’s sufferers say they would like the right to consent to doctor-assisted suicide before the disease destroys their ability to live and exercise a holistic lifestyle. Vincelli said, “We should fight to help give them a good life before trying to end their life.”
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