Do Alzheimer's Patients Have a 'Duty to Die?'

Sept. 25, 2008— -- When Dr. Jonathan Groner, a surgeon and ethicist at Ohio State University, heard of a suggestion by a well-known British philosopher that those with dementia have a "duty to die" in order to minimize the burden they place on society and their families, he was troubled.

First, there were the moral implications of the comments that 84-year-old Baroness Mary Helen Warnock shared with the Church of Scotland's Life and Work magazine last week, in which she stated, "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives -- your family's lives -- and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service."

Such a policy could put society on a slippery slope, he said. And he noted many of the potential moral pitfalls accompanying the suggestion that those suffering from dementia should make a decision to end their own lives.

But Groner said losing his own father to Alzheimer's in January has perhaps given him the most insight into the issue -- and why the lives of dementia sufferers must not be devalued.

"I think that people with dementia are not worthless," Groner said. "Dementia is a huge problem, and it will be a growing one as more people get dementia. But trying to kill them off is probably not the best solution."

Groner is not alone in his opinion. Ethicists and Alzheimer's advocacy groups alike are expressing outrage over Warnock's comments last week, which echoed the opinion she put forth in an article she authored for a Norwegian periodical, titled "A Duty to Die?"

"The suggestion made by Baroness Mary Warnock is ignorant, insensitive and cruel, and denies the humanity of people with Alzheimer's and dementia," the Alzheimer's Association said in a statement issued Wednesday.

"We dispute the fact that if you have dementia or some part of Alzheimer's that you cannot have a quality lifestyle," noted Paul Williams, director of public policy for the Assisted Living Federation of America. "We've seen in the last 10 years that these residents have been able to have the most independence and the quality of life that can be expected of them. ... Just because you have a memory disease [doesn't mean] that we let you die and we can kill you."