Medical aid in dying to avoid late-stage dementia.
Alzheimer's
MAID
VSED
dementia
medical aid in dying
Journal
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
ISSN: 1532-5415
Titre abrégé: J Am Geriatr Soc
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 7503062
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
05 Feb 2024
05 Feb 2024
Historique:
revised:
07
12
2023
received:
11
09
2023
accepted:
16
12
2023
medline:
5
2
2024
pubmed:
5
2
2024
entrez:
5
2
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Many patients with dementia want the option of using medical aid in dying (MAID) to end their lives before losing decision-making capacity and other abilities that impact their desired quality of life. But, for over two decades, it has been widely understood that these patients cannot (solely because of their dementia diagnosis) satisfy three statutory eligibility requirements in all U.S. MAID laws: (1) decisional capacity, (2) the ability to self-administer the life-ending medications, and (3) a terminal condition with 6 months or less to live. Now, because of recent statutory amendments together with the use of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) to quickly advance to a terminal condition, this dementia exclusion from MAID might no longer apply. If combining VSED and MAID is now a possibility for patients with dementia, then clinicians need more guidance on whether and when to support patients seeking to take this path. In this article, we begin to provide this guidance. First, we describe the recent case of an Oregon patient with early-stage Alzheimer's dementia who successfully used VSED to qualify for and use MAID. Second, we discuss prior barriers to using VSED as a bridge to MAID for people with dementia. Third, we describe recent legal changes that might make this path now possible.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024 The American Geriatrics Society.
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