California debating allowing dementia patients to pre-approve euthanasia

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
1

{{ Perhaps the most controversial part of an already explosive proposal is allowing early and mid-stage dementia patients to request the medication while they still have the faculties to do so. Because of the cognitive decline with Alzheimer’s and dementia, people with those conditions are basically disqualified from using this option, }}

The proposal would also allow non-residents to come to California to take advantage of the law, spurring " euthanasia tourism"

I see Private Equity as a big lobby against this. It will hamper their ability to bleed a family’s generational wealth while a loved one languishes in a for-profit nursing home.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/01/california-assisted-suicide-00149833

San Diego-area state Senator Catherine Blakespear, a first term legislator who saw the end-of-life wishes of many of her estate planning clients thwarted under current law, is truly doing the Lord’s work here.

intercst

14 Likes
2

Another thing that should perhaps be added to law - as soon as a DNR comes into effect, nothing major may be billed anymore after that point, only minor palliative things. I haven’t thought it completely through, so I’m sure some of y’all can come up various exceptions that might make sense.

7 Likes
3

Quality of life is very important to me, so languishing in a nursing home is a fear of mine. I have a DNR in place.

I’ve been very clear with my sons about my wishes.

I used to tell them that if I start losing my mind, take me out back and shoot me. Then my older son would put his arm around my shoulder and say “Dad, can we step out back?”

I’ve updated it to have them ask me if I want some dark chocolate. If there’s no response, take me out back. My luck, I’ll have a Lazarus reflex.

9 Likes
4

This is going to run into the same crowd that you see at “right to life” rallies. I remember several prominent blowhards complaining about the “culture of death” vs the “culture of life”, and how others warned that the “culture of life” could endanger any “living will” or “do not resuscitate” order.

4 Likes
5

For dementia it is a good idea in some cases. For Alzheimer’s it would be a bad idea. Ironic. Big difference between the two. Harder to have Alzheimer’s because and be demented.

There is a group of about 24% of the public that fights tooth and nail to do the dumber things. Run them over with a freight truck.

6

I don’t think the problem is that the nursing home is doing any big, expensive medical procedures on a dementia patient. If someone is in good physical, athletic health when they enter the facility, it could take ten years or more before they die, all the while not knowing where they are, or who they are. And this warehousing regimen is likely costing $10,000/month or more. And the after that years long period of watching the loved one’s body decline and waste away, “pulling the plug” is withholding food (removing a tube through the nose that delivers “food” to the stomach) and watching them die of starvation over a period of a few weeks. It’s just nuts that you’d be requiring someone to do this against their wishes.

intercst

9 Likes
7

Mom at 97 was still able to run, dance, and do yoga, but all with rapidly increasing difficulty, and was also rapidly losing her memory. She decided to “hang on” until our last Prez left the White House, threw a small zoom party to celebrate, announced she was “Done” and was quitting eating, and invited folks to show up daily at 5 PM to share with her in a toast of fine red wine to the goodness of life.,
She would wait for us all to appear, raise her glass of superb California Ridge Montebello 2013 Cabernet saying “cheers!”, and that was her nutririon for 11 days until she died happy, knowing herself in her own bed in her own home surrounded by things and people she knew and loved.

Way to go, Mom!

d fb

8 Likes