If you knew your brain was atrophying (rotting) at a fast rate would you choose to die with dignity while you can still think for yourself?

Nah, I'd go into Politics. Perhaps even become the countries leader. History has shown you don't need a brain to do that.

Yes.
I already have the means, just in case such a dire diagnosis might be made - or similar scenarios, such as some disease which guarantees severe pain until death with no drugs or other remedies that work.
It's important to have the means and use it before one loses the capacity to make the choice.
It's also important to discuss it with loved ones. Make an agreement that either they will be absent so that they can't possibly be implicated,
or that they choose to be there to support and farewell you.
Also best to organise to be in a place where it's legal.

The laws around the world are changing fast. Soon it will be legal everywhere so long as there is proof that the person made that choice of their own free will while still sane and able.

Given that medicine is now extending life to well past 90 and 100 years old - but often without any meaningful quality of life or relationships - the right to die is fast becoming a profound ethical issue.

Medicine should never be such a profitable and powerful industry that people are compelled to live.

I'd get a passport and go somewhere where I can legally end my life on my own terms.

I know that I am not going to live to see my own retirement and I'm okay with that. I've already lived a lot longer than the initial prognosis that they gave me anyway.

I guess that the only thing that I'm scared of is being forgotten... to know that I was so insignificant that no one thinks about me or remembers me fondly.

That's a tough one . I’ve had friends do it ,friends who wanted to do it and never got to do it and friends who suffered to the end .

Yes I would.

I think I would just excuse myself and retrench alone to a safe but private place where I could tend to my hobbies and garden as well as I could, and let death catch me whenever it wishes to.

Yes, I would. I would do a Robin Williams on myself.

A lot of the people on this forum have brains that are rotting, so they should be well qualified to answer this.

If I was diagnosed with one of the dementia diseases, yes.

I'm so sorry.
I think I would want to.

Very big dilemma in deed . @Mikla

In a word, yes.

Yes I think so

yes

I’d like to say “yes”, but I don’t know. Depending on what else was going on in my life, I might be hoping for some kind of treatment that could help me live a bit longer in my right mind.

These kinds of things always happens to the nice people

All OK, leave a message - whichever way - and let's chat

Yes

I would probably write about the experience of losing my mind, until I couldn't write anymore. The only dignity I would have left is through my experiences and ability to articulate them and give meaning to them.

Yes, definitely.

EXIT International has a website.
Anyone over fifty can join EXIT International for a small annual fee.
They sell small handbooks at a modest price which supply instructions for a painless death and how to avoid any legal problems for loved ones.
They also have monthly meetings in many areas where members discuss methods and share research.
A notable aspect of these meetings is that the average age is seventy or above, all are highly intelligent, love life and have a gentle and excellent sense of humour.

Mikla, I thought this was a hypothetical question. I didn't know you were enduring this.

I do not know what your decision is but is there a chance you could be coherent for another decade or so?

Someone close to me made a "Decision" recently over health issues, this kind of thing just bothers me.

Well people's brains do naturally atrophy over time. So it really depends on just how fast we are talking about. People have lived with up to 90% of there brain gone.

Dignity. They are diseases relentless and unforgiving, for those choosing to endure to the bitter end.

Absolutely. I have seen more than one person go out the slow way with multi-symptom atrophy and Alzheimer's and I don't want either of those fates.

*sigh* that's hard. I'm not sure.

yup. a quart of southern comfort and 20 or 30 xanax should do the trick

Yes.

That is a hard one because well, I have no idea how I would handle it.

That or volunteer for medical science as a human guinea pig