An interesting scientific study of attitudes in UK and USA towards end of life care and assisted dying in the face of worsening dementia, was published in April 2017 in the peer reviewed on-line journal Plos One: Clarke G, Fistein E, Holland A, Barclay M, Theimann P, Barclay S (2017) Preferences for care towards the [...]
The Mail on Sunday published a story about MDMD supporter Alex Pandolfo who suffers from Alzheimer's and is planning to end his life at Lifecircle in Switzerland. It is a significant article as Alex is explaining his reasons before he ends his life. He mentions one of his difficulties as being the timing of when [...]
Dementia is now the leading cause of death in England and Wales. How can we ensure we don't suffer from it for longer than we wish? Medically Assisted Suicide is one option chosen by a few. In the UK those choosing this option need to arrange appropriate help in Switzerland, as it is not legal [...]
Several news sources report the suicide of Sir Nicholas Wall, the former President of the Family Division, Britain’s most senior family law judge. The Daily Mail has some particularly interesting quotes. Daily Mail The Guardian Daily Telegraph BBC MDMD are not aware of the full circumstances of Sir Nicholas Wall’s death, but the case highlights [...]
Today the Mail on Sunday published an article about the father of an MDMD supporter who ended his life at Dignitas. Penny's father Ron Hall suffered from early stage dementia. The psychiatric assessment to ensure he still had mental capacity to make the life ending decision was done by MDMD's associate coordinator, Colin Brewer. Interestingly, [...]
Today MDMD issued the following press release: My Death, My Decision is pleased that, with support from Dignity in Dying, (DiD), Noel Conway, who is most unfortunately terminally ill with motor neurone disease, has begun judicial review proceedings, claiming that the failure of Parliament to amend the present Suicide Act, to permit him to have [...]
A BBC report highlights the latest statistics published by the ONS on causes of death. Dementia (including Alzheimer's disease), is now the leading cause of death, accounting for 11.6% of all deaths in 2015. This has now overtaken coronary heart disease, though for men that still remains the leading cause of death. For those over [...]
Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) writes a moving personal story of his mother who suffers from dementia, arguing the case for assisted suicide for early stage dementia patients - as he and his mother did 10 years before. Colin Brewer, former psychiatrist and current associate coordinator of MDMD, follows this [...]
An elderly man told care home staff his dementia patient wife "had suffered enough" after shooting her at point blank range, a court hears. Source: Man shot wife with dementia in care home 'to end suffering' - BBC News This story is a challenge to the DPP guidelines. From the details available it appears that [...]
MDMD supporter Penny Hall's father suffered from dementia. He chose to end his life in Switzerland while he was still sufficiently mentally competent to do so. The story is reported in this Cambridge News article. Why should he have to travel to Switzerland? Why should his family suffer a police investigation for accompanying him? The [...]