Choice at life’s bookends: Abortion rights vs. the right to die with dignity

According to the Alzheimer’s Association data, Alzheimer’s is not just memory loss. Alzheimer’s or another dementia kills 33% of older Americans. That’s more than the total deaths from breast cancer and prostate cancer, making it the sixth-leading cause of death among people age 65 and older in 2022. Interestingly, deaths from Alzheimer’s rose over 200% between 2000 and 2022, while those from heart disease, the leading cause of death, have gone down.

“Wow, Seagull, the figures show that there’s a one in three chance of ending up with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. That means even if you don’t have it, you will end up being the caregiver for someone who does.” “That’s true, and for an extended period. Alzheimer’s patients aged 65 and older survive an average of four to eight years after a diagnosis, with some living as long as 20 years.”

From personal experience, an Ole Seagull can testify to the devastating impact the disease has on the patient. It breaks your heart to see the life and spirit of someone you love slowly draining away as the disease slowly invades and destroys their memory to where they do not know who you or they are and require constant help in everything from eating to dressing, and every other normal daily function or activity.

It is an Ole Seagull’s privilege that he can return to the woman who has stood by him and is responsible for every good thing he has ever accomplished, some of the care, patience and love that she gave him and his family for decades. Too, it hammers home to him that at the end of his years, there’s a more than even chance that the disease will do the same thing to him and make him a burden on others. That is a fear that no one should have to live with!

To an Ole Seagull, it’s a fundamental matter of freedom and one’s right to choose to end their life with dignity and without becoming a certain burden on others and society. A battle rages throughout our country over a woman’s right to choose an abortion, but comparatively speaking, very little is said about the right of a person to decide when and how their life ends with dignity.

“Come on Seagull, you’re not comparing a woman’s right to abortion to a person having the right to choose to die with dignity are you?” “Absolutely, the foundational argument for both relates to a very important freedom: everyone should have the right to make their own choices about their body and their future!”

“Seagull, are you supporting abortion rights?” “If you mean a woman’s right to have an abortion to prevent her death, preserve her health when there is a serious risk of irreversible and substantial impairment of a major bodily function, or when the pregnancy results from rape or the incest, ‘Yes.’”

“What about abortions in other situations?” “If you mean a pregnancy resulting from a conscious decision to have sex, ‘No.’”

“Seagull, how do you reconcile those statements with a woman’s ‘right to make their own choices about their body and their future’ or the right of a person with Alzheimer’s dying with dignity?” “It’s pretty simple and consistent: he doesn’t support abortion rights when the woman had a choice about the act that led to her pregnancy, and if she had chosen not to, wouldn’t be pregnant. He supports ‘abortion rights’ in those situations where the woman does not make a conscious choice to perform the act leading to her pregnancy.

“A person who has Alzheimer’s suffers from something they didn’t cause, which is a common disease of old age that people can expect and plan for. It seems to an Ole Seagull that a person, like a DNR, ought to be empowered to make a legally enforceable advance directive, before the onset of the disease, that enables them to die as painlessly and with dignity.”