Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s article in The Washington Post about the efforts in the state of Oregon to allow patients with degenerative diseases the right to die:
“People with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, multiple sclerosis and a host of other degenerative diseases are generally excluded from the Oregon [medically assisted suicide] law. This is because some degenerative diseases aren’t fatal. People die with Parkinson’s, for example, not because of it. Other diseases, such as advanced Alzheimer’s, rob people of the cognition they need to legally request the suicide medications.”
Some in Oregon are considering changes to this law or a new law that would allow people who do not have dementia to say that they do not wish to be spoon-fed if they do develop dementia.
Here’s a link to the article: