While, Baroness Mary Warnock, a medical ethics expert has been advocating euthanasia for people suffering from dementia for several years now, Alzheimer’s charities term her remarks as ‘insensitive and ignorant’.  

Talking to BBC, Lady Warnock said that more research is required to establish whether people with Alzheimer’s and dementia are mentally competent to decide whether they preferred to die, than be a burden on their families and the National Health Service.

But Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, strongly criticising the peer’s comments stated that people with dementia can live quite comfortably when properly cared for.  Further, Ms. Wood said that the solution to dementia does not lie in euthanasia, but rather in more research to find new treatments, preventions and a cure.

Lady Warnock’s comments, in an interview with the Church of Scotland’s magazine ‘Life and Work’, have been condemned as ‘immoral’ and ‘barbaric’, though they may find wider support due to her influence in ethical matters.

There are around 700,000 people in the UK suffering from dementia, a number expected to double within 30-years.