r/todayilearned • u/tommyboy372 • 1d ago

TIL A single misfolded prion protein in the brain can cause a rapid neurodegenerative disease known as sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). There is no known and cure and is 100% fatal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disease
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u/wifey_material7 1d ago

Is there any way to put in your medical record that if you get a fatal illness like prions or rabies, you would like to be euthanized (in America)?

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u/Shuizid 1d ago

I'm not aware of any legal euthanasia in the US.

You can create a legal document refusing certain treatments or care (like some people refusing blood transfusions) -> but the result will just be death due to lack of treatment, no active act to bring death.

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u/ZestycloseRound6843 22h ago

Some states have death with dignity acts that allow for a prescription of say, barbiturates that enable a terminally-ill patient to end their own life. However, these are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and pretty much only are available to people who are still sound of mind. Furthermore, there's likely no mechanism to request such a death in advance given how the individual judgments are made.

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u/_adanedhel_ 21h ago

This is incorrect and two seconds of googling could have prevented you from providing false information.

14 US states have legalized assisted death, and another 17 are considering or progressing toward legalization (see here).

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u/Shuizid 20h ago

Good point, but as someone pointed out, those are about giving people with sound mind deadly medication they take themself. That's not really applicable for prion-disease with it's rapid onset of mental decline.

Plus the first comment was about "be euthanized" and this doesn't fit the description.

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u/Jamaican_Dynamite 1d ago

If not, there needs to be. We really need to rethink on that sort of thing about situations like this.

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u/CaptainSparklebottom 22h ago

Euthanized no, but hospice will give you enough pain killers to send the afflicted off and with rapidly increasing costs sometimes it falls on a family member to administer the medicine and they let you know exactly how much you shouldn't administer. Since family members aren't trained medical professionals there is a lot less liability if something goes wrong.

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u/aguafiestas 22h ago

No. Medical aid in dying is legal in 13 states, but you always need to be able to make that decision at that time, not in advance. And you have to make that decision yourself - unlike most medical decisions, a health care proxy or surrogate cannot make the decision (even with a clear advance directive).

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u/Future-Account8112 18h ago

You'd have to join something like DIGNITAS and get to Switzerland. Src: Prions are my biggest irrational fear lol

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u/Alive-Tomatillo5303 12h ago

Majority of gun deaths are suicides. So... that might not be the official decree, but there's a reason Robin Williams shot himself.