Ethics of Choosing to Die in an Age of Alzheimer's Disease

University of Alabama law professor Pamela Bucy Pierson has a new article in the Journal of Health & Biomedical Law: "The Ethics of Choosing to Die in an Age of Alzheimer's Disease."  

 This Article examines ethical and legal questions presented when individuals in their last chapter of life decide it is time to die. Need they be terminally ill? If they have dementia, are they capable of making an end-of-life decision? Does it matter that today, for the first time in human history, our bodies can be kept alive for years by medicine, technology, and round-the-clock care long after we have lost all sense of who we are or who we have been? What moral language do we use when considering these questions? 

For answers, this Article examines ethical analyses published over the past four decades in the fields of medicine, law, ethics, and philosophy. Applying the normative ethics of Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, insights from evolutionary biology and behavioral science, and experiences shared by those who have wrestled with these questions, this Article offers guidance on how healthcare professionals and society ethically respond to these questions.