ABSTRACT
The lay and academic press have played an influential role in shaping what people think and believe about Alzheimer’s disease and where it should be situated in public debate on the legalization of euthanasia. Similarly, the lay and academic press have played an influential role in shaping what people think and believe about euthanasia and where it should be situated in public discourse on the care and treatment of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In contradistinction to the influential dehumanizing metaphoric portrayal of Alzheimer’s disease, these media have tended to portray euthanasia (and its counterpart, physician assisted suicide) in terms that are not only humanizing, but heroic. Whether the euthanasia of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease is either humanizing or heroic, however, remains open to question. Also open to question is why euthanasia holds such an allure for a majority of people in general and for people contemplating Alzheimer’s disease in particular. In short, what is going on here? It remains the task of this chapter to draw together the threads woven in the previous chapters and to offer an explanation for why Alzheimer’s disease has emerged as a compelling ‘vulnerability target’ for the pro-euthanasia lobby.
