By Dave Andrusko I lead an adult Sunday school class and many of the members have parents who are aging rapidly and/or in declining health. We often talk about what that entails, not only for them, but for their siblings and even for the grandkids. Earlier this week I had coffee with one member of …
Continue reading "A grandmother’s journey through Alzheimer’s: The privilege of remembering for both of us"By Nancy Valko My mother developed Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, in her early 60s. Later on, she was diagnosed with an aggressive thyroid cancer that required a surgical opening in her throat called a tracheostomy so that she would not suffocate from the tumor. My father and siblings were naturally distraught …
Continue reading "Five Things my Mother (and Daughter) Taught Me about Caring for People with Dementia"By Paul Russell, Founder. HOPE Australia Georgia Blain is a novelist. She also has a regular column in The Saturday Paper under the title: The Unwelcome Guest, a monthly column about her own struggle with brain cancer. In the March 26th edition, she talks candidly about the difficulties supporting her mother, famous Australian journalist, broadcaster …
Continue reading "“Mercy,” euthanasia, and second thoughts"By Michael Cook Negative attitudes towards Alzheimer’s disease are an undue influence on the euthanasia debate, claims an Australian bioethicist. Deakin University Professor Megan-Jane Johnstone has examined the ‘Alzheimerisation’ of the euthanasia debate in her book, “Alzheimer’s disease, media representations and the politics of euthanasia: constructing risk and selling death in an aging society.” …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s undue influence on the euthanasia debate"By Dave Andrusko Editor’s note. This first appeared sometime ago. But the campaign to annihilate societal resistance to assisted suicide grows ever louder and more insistent and what we read here is a powerful antidote. Last week the New York Times’ Matt Flegenheimer wrote a much commented upon story about Charles Snelling, who had killed …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s and the Call to Exercise Virtue"By Wesley J. Smith Sometimes I get emotional whiplash. On one hand, we see very prominent bioethicists say that we should starve Alzheimer’s patients to death if they asked to be killed in an advance directive. Compassion and Choices teaches oldsters how to commit suicide by self-starvation. People like Peter Singer claim we should …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s: To Love and Care or Kill?"By Dave Andrusko Editor’s note. We are approaching the fourth anniversary (can it be four years?!) since “Kay” passed away and three years since I wrote about our experience with her. Kay made such a lasting impression on my wife and myself that periodically I try to share the lessons I learned from her …
Continue reading "The privilege of remembering for both of us"By Dave Andrusko Yesterday, at www.prolifeperspective.com National Right to Life President Carol Tobias offered many insights into the tragic murder/suicide of Charles Darwin Snelling, who killed his Alzheimer’s-stricken wife of 61 years, Adrienne. As St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Colleen Carroll Campbell explains, the case assumed particular prominence because just a few months before he killed …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s and the human person’s inherent dignity and right to life"By Dave Andrusko New York Times columnist David Brooks Last week the New York Times’ Matt Flegenheimer wrote a much commented upon story about Charles Snelling, who had killed his wife and took his own life. I did not see the Times story, but had read the Washington Post account. On Monday the Times’ David …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s and the Call to Exercise Virtue"By Dave Andrusko An op-ed for TIME magazine by two bioethicist from a notoriously anti-life think tank lays out the case that when reliable tests can detect the very beginnings of Alzheimer’s, it will be “time to listen to and take seriously those people who, upon seeing their own parents spend years, even decades, suffering …
Continue reading "Trading on our Worst Fears to Find a Justification for Assisted Suicide"By Dave Andrusko As I’ve mentioned many times, I am so blessed that pro-lifers send me stories that appear in publications all over the country. I was especially touched by a column written by Lisa Moore, “My Mom remembers a sister I never met: Alzheimer’s robs new memories, not the old ones,” that appeared this …
Continue reading "Appreciating life in all its beautiful forms"