No slippery slope required

I didn't think that I would be writing about dementia so soon after my blog on Tuesday, but there was a news article on this subject yesterday on Radio Lancashire. The Dementia Society tell us that dementia is the biggest medical challenge of the 21st century and affects over 800 000 of us. They go on to tell us that this figure is 15% higher than previously thought and there is no cure. On the television I heard that if you reach the age of 65 then you have a one in three chance of developing dementia.

However what really caught my attention was a comment from a spokeswoman for the Alzheimer's Society who said that "in reality it is a terminal illness and it isn't recognised as that". Now I don't know how this expert defines the word terminal but seeing that people live for years with this diagnosis then we need to use our imagination to connect the words terminal and Alzheimer's. The problem is that if we link this blog with Tuesday's then we find that Terry Pratchett is calling for almost anyone with almost any diagnosis to be able to take their own life. You don't need a slippery slope to get to this stage, just listen to Radio Lancashire.

Change the world

P.S. Also on the radio was an interview with the wife of an Alzheimer's sufferer. She mentioned how he looked 'normal' but would wander off and steal things. Well link this with my blog from Monday and all you have to do is to get people like this to wander onto someone else's property. They lose all their rights and get killed legally. Hey presto the problem of the cost of treating people with dementia is solved. You may have guessed that I am using irony to highlight the lack of thought that David Cameron has given to his hug a hoodie - I mean bash a burglar campaign.