SIR – If the cost of care for those suffering Dementia will be a big problem for the 21st century, is society guilty of keeping people alive for too long?
OAPs like me today have enjoyed a far better life than either our parents’ or grandparents’ generations, with them facing two World Wars plus the economic depression in between times without NHS or today’s lavish welfare benefits, etc.
But now with life expectancy increasing, and most of our grandchildren likely to become centenarians, no-one has yet found a way to prevent the mental deterioration which deprives us, and probably them also, of the ability to live independently.
Is therefore euthanasia or even assisted suicide the way forward?
I know what I’d prefer given the choice of rotting away in some geriatric home while the local authority robbed me of my house and savings, while some feckless or indolent person in the next bed got it all free – or a glass of champagne with a ‘Mickey Finn’, to go to sleep and never wake up again.
Of course there are many legal, religious, cultural and moral issues surrounding this subject, but I believe it is legal in both Holland and Switzerland, so why not here?
D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds
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