April 29, 2019 | JAMA Neurology

Attitudes Toward Physician-Assisted Death From Individuals Who Learn They Have an Alzheimer Disease Biomarker

Emily A. Largent, Mélanie Terrasse, Kristin Harkins, Dominic Sisti, Pamela Sankar, PhD, Jason Karlawish, MD

Seven states have legalized physician-assisted death (PAD) for competent, terminally ill individuals; these criteria exclude persons with dementia (PWD). However, there is ethical and policy discussion around expanding access to PAD to people with Alzheimer disease (AD). Here, we present attitudes toward PAD of cognitively normal individuals enrolled in a clinical trial that required them to learn whether they have elevated amyloid-β, a biomarker that increases risk for cognitive decline owing to AD.

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