Physician-assisted suicide in Alzheimer's disease

This paper takes up the question of physician-assisted suicide(PAS) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), reviewing arguments for and against in a broad interdisciplinary context. Preemptive PAS-AD involving competent patients raises the further question of AD-euthanasia. The author concludes, after thorough assessment of the literature, that caution in moving toward AD-PAS is necessary. However, where PAS is legalized, it may be difficult to justify precluding people with AD from access. J Am Geriatr SOC 45:647-651, 1997.