My mother-in-law lives with us and has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. We've been dealing with it for about a year but things are progressively getting worse. What are options for care?
She gets social security, and we don't have a lot of money ourselves and are no longer able to be with her 24/7. We are in Maryland, and are scared of what we can do. Will her medicare do anything? Is it too late for something like long term care insurance? We have no idea where to start.
Thanks for any insight.
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No.
There's no law that allows killing of the unwilling; even a living will addressing assisted suicide or euthanization due to incapability assumes that you would still consent at the later date, but lack either physical or intellectual ability to communicate that. If you can clearly communicate that you've changed your mind, they have to respect that, even if that changed mind has reduced capability due to dementia.
Your best hope would be to go with assisted suicide while you still have enough faculties to make the decision and execute on your portions of the act.
Well that’s stupid
If you can kill yourself whenever you want, you should be able to kill yourself in advance too
I mean you kid of can with a “do not resuscitate “
It’s actually not stupid, but quite complex.
In the countries where euthanasia is commonly practiced, there are huge ethical discussions about it and the more you learn about it, the more complex it gets. It turns out, that if you get dementia, your personality changes. The new person you may become may not want to die, even if they cannot judge the situation adequately. In any medical situation a no means more than a yes and, in general, that is a very good thing.
I share your opinion that I would rather be euthanized than have my loved ones go through the whole process. But it really isn’t simple.
I understand that concern
I’m saying it would be better for society in general if I could be euthanized against my will if I have dementia, and I really do think it’s that simple. It’s like a trolley problem. You have to make the trolley run me over, so my loved ones aren’t tortured and burdened. We euthanize animals against their will all the time and while it’s very hard, we recognize it’s necessary. I think the same logic should apply, and it’s made easier with prior consent.