Doing nothing is a choice. But Alzheimer's patients start fires, wander into traffic, wander into the woods and die of exposure, become homeless, get assaulted, etc.

In my view, doing nothing is hard to defend, morally. Suppose she starts a fire in her home and the house next door also catches fire and her neighbor does too? Suppose she kills someone with her car because she can't drive?

My friend's daughter was crossing the street with her baby in a stroller and her toddler by the hand. In a crosswalk. An 80 year old woman who was cognitively compromised hit them in her car.

The baby died. The toddler was paralyzed below the waist. The mom was so badly injured, she needs months of painful rehabilitation.

My friend is literally a shadow of herself. More dead than alive.

One of the saddest things that has ever happened to someone I know. And I am not making this up.

It happened in Cincinnati, 1986.