Dad’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s stayed hidden
from everyone until I took over the medical administration of my parents in 2015.
Once I found out, there was a deafening silence from most of the people I know
even though virtually all of them would add, “My _____ had Alzheimer’s…” But
there was little help, little beyond people sadly shaking heads. Or horror stories.
Lots of those. Even the ones who knew about the disease seemed to have received
a gag order from some Central Alzheimer’s Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this part
of my blog…
On another blog I
keep, I complained that while science fiction dealt with all kinds of disabilities,
few I’d run across dealt with dementia, or Alzheimer’s in specific. I found
some, as I reviewed here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/06/possibly-irritating-essay-no-futures.html
I was shocked then
as my wife and I were re-watching the last season of STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine.
Broadcast at the close of the 20th Century, when we were just
beginning to feel the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s (Dad was diagnosed in
2014 and died in 2019 of complications stemming from Alzheimer’s.)
Alzheimer’s was
identified 120 years ago and since then has moved from an obscure condition
including “…memory loss, paranoia, and psychological changes. Dr. Alzheimer
noted in the autopsy that there was shrinkage in and around nerve cells in her
brain.”
At the turn of the
century, Alzheimer’s and other dementias didn’t even make the “Top Ten” list of
global causes of death. Nineteen years later, it has skyrocketed to the sixth
most common cause of death among humans, though in 2017, it was the FOURTH most
common cause of death on Earth. In 2019, it was the 6th most common
cause of death in the US, topped by heart disease at #1.
So, you’d think it
would engender quite a bit more fiction than it does; and in the field of speculative
fiction, you’d think it would be a gold mine of story ideas.
It’s not.
In fact, just like
in the real world, it seems like no one wants to talk about it at all. Of course,
I did – twenty years ago in ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact. The June 2000
issue carried my story “A Pig Tale” in which a researcher illicitly used a drug
designed to treat Alzheimer’s to “rewrite” her father’s memory, erasing his
suicide attempt. You can read it here: http://theworkandworksheetsofguystewart.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-pig-tale-june-2000-analog-science.html
At any rate, in
the ST:DS9 episode, “Once More Unto the Breach”, a Klingon with dementia – and a
glorious reputation from the past – wants to die in glory. Commander Worf, an
old friend of his, arranges a place for him on a dangerous mission. “Klingon
Kor is growing old and senile, and asks Worf for one last chance to die in
battle. Worf uses his sway to get him on a ship, and though he initially he is
humiliated, he eventually gets his warrior's death.”
While the cause of
his loss of memory is laid on “senility”, it’s more than that. Just watch the
episode – Kor is not only forgetting things, he’s paranoid as well as reliving
the past as if it’s the present. It’s this aspect of his Alzheimer’s that
nearly kills everyone.
Dad’s retreat into
the past never endangered anyone’s lives, though his denial that he was
starting to get confused when driving – and a harrowing turn across five lanes
of traffic – might easily have killed people besides himself. That retreat
caused constant problems for us and led to embarrassing revelations of his
past. This manifested itself several times for me when he became convinced that
my mom had left him because of imagined (recalled?) marital indiscretions. That
happened far more often than I wanted to count.
How WOULD a
disease like Alzheimer’s manifests itself in sapient beings other than Human?
How might they be treated? Would a cure for one be a cure for another? What if
other sapient civilizations practiced “senicide”? STAR TREK: The Next
Generation dealt with this issue in the episode “Half A Life” in which a man in
his “prime” is culturally required to end his life. The troubled Lwaxana Troi
tries to convince him to live; an offer he eventually and regretfully refuses.
I’m always on the
look out for stories that deal with senescence, Alzheimer’s, and dementia. If
you know of any others, let me know. In the meantime, I’ll continue my search
to cross post here and on my regular blog!
Resource: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Once_More_Unto_the_Breach_(episode),
https://www.alzheimers.net/history-of-alzheimers/,
https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death,
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death,
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/star-trek-deep-space-nine-930878/item/once-more-breach-star-trek-926160,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senicide
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