Alzheimer’s Run

Should people with dementia be put down? Well that’s what Lady Warnock, the ‘veteran’ medical ethics commentator, believes.

She is quoted in a recent article in the Daily Telegraph as saying that people with dementia are a burden. “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives – your family’s lives – you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service,” she said.

She went on to say that she hoped people would soon be “licensed to put others down”.
This is eerily redolent of Logan’s Run – the 1976 film where anyone over the age of 30 is killed – and raises potentially disturbing questions.

If Lady Warnock’s idea is given credence – and I can see some people thinking it’s a good idea – then where do you stop?

Why not euthanise other people with terminal degenerative conditions, such as motor neuron disease or Parkinson’s? After all, they will become a burden to their family and the NHS too.
Heck, anyone needing care could be got rid of; it would solve the funding problem in the NHS and allow everyone to get on and enjoy their own lives without having to care for loved ones.

Perhaps as soon as someone is diagnosed with a condition, or even comes to retirement – the end of their ‘useful’ life and when people most need the NHS and care services – they could be terminated painlessly thereby solving any problems before they start.

Of course my dystopian vision of the future won’t happen, but neither should Lady Warnock’s ideas ever get beyond opinions in newspaper articles either.

A person has a right to life and just because they’re ill doesn’t mean they have no value and should be dispensed with. After all, there are about 6 million carers in this country, and hundreds of thousands employed in the industry. Many of them enjoy looking after others and make a positive difference to their quality of life.

A person with dementia is someone who has lived and loved; treating them like diseased cattle is not an option. We need to understand the condition and treat it – and one day even cure it.