Comment by michaelt
3 days ago
Many western countries make dying slowly with Alzheimer’s very expensive, by the standards of normal families.
Between doctors, nurses and lawyers you can burn through a million bucks in five years easily. And most families don’t have a million bucks cash to spare.
On the other hand, if they die after six months, instead of after 5 years? The family doesn’t lose the farm.
> Between doctors, nurses and lawyers you can burn through a million bucks in five years easily
That would indicate there is a financial incentive in keeping them alive, no?
The "incentive" from the family's perspective, if they're that cold-blooded, doesn't make sense because they could just... not take care of that person.
Not taking care of your mother while she's dying of Alzheimer's is not as easy as you might think.
Some countries have nationalized healthcare
You’re not understanding. They could just not take care of that person sure. But when the person dies, there will be nothing left to inherit because they will have spent it all on medical care.
So we've outlined a society where: healthcare providers, lawyers, etc. ("the system") stand to benefit from keeping a person alive and suffering because they can squeeze money out of them in their final years. Assisted suicide is being made available and "family pressure to commit suicide" is brought up as a concern? Sure, valid concern I guess, but it just seems pointless as there are already guardrails around these processes and we're not recognizing the benefits of giving more autonomy to people which means their suffering can be stopped.
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