My husband has Alzheimer's. I noticed he was off in 2017. His cousin, G, a Presbyterian minister who worked with refugees around the world and was 10 years younger than he, lived in Canada. She immediately applied for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) when she got her diagnosis of AD, a few years after my husband. She told me that she did not want to waste away and take resources from someone who could use them.
I was raised Roman Catholic, lapsed for the last 50 years, and I still had difficulties accepting her decision. We had a Zoom call with her sister a few weeks before she died, and she was a husk of the person I knew. I made peace with her decision.
In Canada, only 5% of MAID recipients have dementia and most recipients do not have strong religious affiliations. Consent is tricky. I wondered if G would manage to give consent just prior to her death.
Meanwhile, my husband is currently happy and content, and doesn't want to die. When he was younger, he was the first person to say if he got a terminal illness or incapacity, he would kill himself.
Our nephew, also in Canada, 62, had an adverse reaction to Heparin after open heart surgery, and his life was hell the last 10 months. He was unable to gain any physical function, plus had one serious infectious disease after another. He opted to die by not eating, and he was gone in a couple of days. His wife resisted his decision initially, but came to terms with it.
I haven't done much research on programs like MAID in the US, but I have read it's nearly impossible with a diagnosis of dementia.