Choosing When to Die

Few things are more frightening for an academic and a scholar than losing the ability to think. Their livelihoods, and sense of self, are dependent on the cognitive ability to generate new ideas and write about them. And so for Sandy Bem, a psychology professor, the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s threatened a devastating blow. Her conclusion was that before the disease progressed so far that she lost who she was, she would terminate her own life. The only problem she faced was deciding when. The New York Times takes an in-depth look at her decision and how she and her support network decided the best time to end her life.