The Straits Times carried a report on Alz Disease Last Saturday, 27 Sep 08.
My mother suffers from Alz for over 10 years. This disease degenerates the mind, the soul and finally the physical body progressively. In fact, the mind and the soul is dead long before the physical death.
At the start of the illness, forgetfulness and absentmindedness set in. The mind fails, along with the nervous system fail gradually. The patient regresses to the mental state and the faculty of a 3 years old, then a 2 years old, then a 6 months old child. Finally, the patient does not know how to open her mouth to suck or swallow food, the stomach and intestines do not know how to digest food. And then, the body succumbs to malnutrition or failure to breathe...
Unlike other illnesses, the patient has to be cared for 24 hrs by 7 days a week. It takes one to two full-time caregivers to manage one patient at the ending stages.
Looking at the situation my mother is in, I could see the different entities of the human being -- the physical body, the mind, the soul and the spirit. My mother is a non-christian, so she may not have the spirit. With the mind 90% destroyed, she is only capable of basic involuntary functions like breathing, digestion, slow walking, and secretion of waste matters.
Since she is without a lucid mind, I would not detect her soul. There is no expression of joy or sadness, no thoughts of goodness or evil, no thoughts of love or hatred, no thoughts of earthly or spiritual things, no thoughts of right or wrong...
Without a mind capable of thoughts, I believe an alz person's soul is de-activated. One day, when the soul is liberated from this earthly body, it would recall or be aware of the eternity of life again.
Alz is a terrible disease. Honestly, it's a mystery why we are plagued by it.
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