The article “The Last Day of Her Life” by Robert Marantz Henig thoroughly depict the last days of Sandy Bem. This article begins by describing Bem’s life before and after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The article begins by detailing the different “cognitive oddities” that she began to have around the age of 64. Around this time Bem would easily forgot names of things as well as simple lists of objects during memory tests. This is when Bem’s ex-husband drove her to get properly diagnosed. Marantz Henig notes that during the testing Bem was glad that the tasks were not timed because they seemed really difficult to her. After completing several tasks the diagnosis was amnestic mild cognitive impairment. It would take about 10 years until she actually had Alzheimer’s disease.
Sandy became completely devastated thinking about Alzheimer’s disease would leave her as an empty person with no memories. After about a month after her diagnosis, Sandy decided that she would end her life before she could no longer remember who she is. Not being able to think critically was something that really upset Sandy, because that was something she prided herself in. This was especially due to her previous work in gender studies and psychotherapy.
She tried to describe her experiences and feelings in a file she named, “Memoir.” This was one of her ways of coping. Once she went in for her second diagnosis she decided to tell close family members and friends about her plan to end her life before the disease would advance too much.
As her disease progressed, there didn’t seem to be many things that made Sandy want to stay longer. She talked to her ex-husband, Daryl, and decided that she would commit suicide in June. At this point her family began to see how fast she was deteriorating and knew why she would want to end her life painlessly and on her own time.
On her last day, Sandy drank pentobarbital and wine and peacefully passed.
Articles help highlight how difficult it is for people living with Alzheimer’s disease as well as how hard it is for those around them. The way that Sandy Bem described how she didn’t want to become a hollowed out version of herself really seemed emphasized by her willingness to end her life to avoid that. There seems to be a huge stigma around the issue of committing suicide when suffering of terminal illness. Many do not even want to begin to discuss why it is important to give people this option especially when they themselves are suffering intensely due to the disease.
Sandy also mentions the different research that she had to do on her own in order for to be able to die the way she wanted. Several articles are mentioned and she also points out that other countries also allow this type of suicide but this rarely occurs for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s. The cost of her Alzheimer’s medicine is also mentioned and this goes to show how it may not be an option to many people because of its high cost.
In general, I believe this shows they lack of talk around issues like these because they may like taboo.
cynthiaromopsych178 