Assistance With Eating and Drinking Only When Requested Can Prevent Living With Advanced Dementia

Alzheimer's disease and other progressive neurodegenerative dementias are growing as the population ages. Managing dementia is challenging from economic, societal, and ethical perspectives. One significant ethical issue concerns people who want to avoid living with advanced dementia. Current strategies (suicide and traditional advance directives) are suboptimal or inadequate. Stopping eating and drinking by advance directive (SED by AD) is a better potential solution.