Margaret Thatcher Had Dementia




Picture from
 http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796\

  The news yesterday stated she died of a stroke. I signed a sympathy e-card at 
 http://actions.usagainstalzheimers.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10377

But dementia over the twelve years weakened Mrs. Thatcher. Melissa Healy in the LA Time article here observed:

While former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was reported to have died of stroke on Monday, few experts doubt that dementia, the disease she lived with for at least the final 12 years of her life, contributed powerfully to her demise. . . . But the added risk of death that comes with dementia is well documented: among 70-year-olds who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, 61% are expected to die within a decade; among 70-year-olds without Alzheimer's disease, only 30% will die within a decade.

Mrs. Thatcher is noted here for saying:

• If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.
• It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
• To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.
• We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.

Albert Mohler, who met the Baroness, wrote today here:

Baroness Thatcher once described her understanding of how the Christian faith should influence political philosophy and public policy. Speaking to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May of 1988, Mrs. Thatcher argued that Christians “must not profess the Christian faith and go to church simply because we want social reforms and benefits for a better standard of behaviour; but because we accept the sanctity of life, the responsibility that comes with freedom and the supreme sacrifice of Christ.”

In explaining how the Christian faith should impact politics, she suggested that the Bible does not tell us “exactly what kind of political and social institutions we should have.” As she explained, “On this point, Christians will very often genuinely disagree; though it is a mark of Christian manners that they will do so with courtesy and mutual respect. What is certain, however, is that any set of social and economic arrangements which is not founded on the acceptance of individual responsibility will do nothing but harm.”

What a principled lady she was! Our world has been blessed by people such as her and Ronald Reagan, and unfortunately dementia/Alzheimer's took both leaders.