Live fast and die young or....

Reading about Maggie Thatcher suffering from dementia made me think of this. Man, how bad would that be? To have been someone who exercised so much power, and to have used that power to make so many changes. Only to end up as someone who lacks the capacity to recognize relatives and who has to wear a diaper to keep from pissing on the floor. Reagan too. I get that it's all a part of the process....but, goddamn. Push me out of a window or shoot me in the head.

Discuss.

Reading about Maggie Thatcher suffering from dementia made me think of this. Man, how bad would that be? To have been someone who exercised so much power, and to have used that power to make so many changes. Only to end up as someone who lacks the capacity to recognize relatives and who has to wear a diaper to keep from pissing on the floor. Reagan too. I get that it's all a part of the process....but, goddamn. Push me out of a window or shoot me in the head.

Discuss. Originally Posted by timpage

Saw a statistic yesterday - but failed to save it - about the big increase in the number of very old people dying of Alzheimer's disease.

Since more and more people are surviving or not getting heart disease and cancer, we end up with more Alzheimer's deaths. And the old folks typically require YEARS of nursing care or hospice care, neither of which is cheap.

There is a lot to be said for dying of a heart attack in your sleep when you are early 70s and only a few years into retirement. That is the PATRIOTIC way to die - nice and cheap.

We need death panels!!

Wasn't there a song about that? I want to be one of the "grumpy old Men"

Saw a statistic yesterday - but failed to save it - about the big increase in the number of very old people dying of Alzheimer's disease.

Since more and more people are surviving or not getting heart disease and cancer, we end up with more Alzheimer's deaths. And the old folks typically require YEARS of nursing care or hospice care, neither of which is cheap.

There is a lot to be said for dying of a heart attack in your sleep when you are early 70s and only a few years into retirement. That is the PATRIOTIC way to die - nice and cheap.

We need death panels!! Originally Posted by ExNYer

I've got a buddy whose mom has gone from total lucidity to an inability to recognize her children in less than 12 months time due to Alzheimers (on another topic, isn't it odd that so many people are suffering from a disease that nobody had heard of 20 years ago?). Just to be clear, this is not a pro-death panel post (can't believe I even have to say that, but in order to assuage the idiots, I'm saying it). I just wonder, how to deal with this problem? NY'er is right, it is going to become more and more common as the boomers age. Again, I'm not advocating any sort of absurd death panel shit, that is ridiculous.

But, what would your personal choice be? I drink, I smoke, I'm enjoying my personal choices...if I croak before I turn into a drooling, peeing on myself old person, is that a bad thing? Because of the personal lifestyle choices I made? I want to live as long as possible, but I don't want to live pissing myself and not recognizing my family members.

I pity all the health nuts who will one day be lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.

I do not approve of death panels, as you know. But I do support assisted suicide (no, not for me, at least not right now. But thanks for the offers). I think a person should be able to sign a document that says if you get to a point where you no longer are cognizant of your surroundings, you authorize your doctors to put you "to sleep".

It's sort of a toss-up as to which is worse, and on whom. I have seen both dementia where my grandmother did not recognize anyone, to my dad, who had full mental capacity, but after three heart attacks, bypass surgery, a stroke, and 30+ years of diabetes, could no almost nothing for himself physically. I do agree with COG on the assisted suicide as some countries have in fact legalized. In fact I believe my dad would have actually preferred it. For myself, I have a legal document outlining health decisions by my son if I am incapacitated and have explicitly specified that if the only thing keeping me alive is the damn machine, PULL THE FUCKING PLUG. I have also jokingly, or not so jokingly, stated that the day I stop looking at, admiring, and yes lusting after attractive women, someone needs to either shoot me or give me a gun to do that myself, since at that point, i'm already dead.