Alzheimer’s Association Separates From Assisted Suicide

A patient advocacy group that had linked arms with a pro-assisted-suicide organization has recognized the error of its ways.

Last year, the Alzheimer’s Association—which describes itself as “a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer’s care, support and research”—formed a working relationship with Compassion & Choices. A successor organization to the Hemlock Society, Compassion & Choices is one of the leading assisted suicide advocacy groups in New York and across the nation. According to the Blaze, Compassion & Choices “openly states on its website that it hopes that, within five years, ‘half the U.S. population will live in a location where medical aid in dying is an open and accessible medical practice.’”

On January 29, 2023, the Alzheimer’s Association issued a press release stating that it had reversed course. The Association acknowledged that it had “failed to do appropriate due diligence,” indicated that the values of Compassion & Choices were “inconsistent with those of the Association,” and apologized. The Association added that it “supports a palliative care approach as the highest quality of end-of-life care for individuals with advanced dementia.”

New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation thanks the Alzheimer’s Association for ending its association with Compassion & Choices. Groups that want to help people live have no business joining forces with groups that promote suicide.