Please take my brain as well

Editor, The Press:

(re: “Pearl’s brain is working hard, even after death,” Nov. 11)

Brava to Pearl Tytell for participating in a critically important Alzheimer’s disease study.

My mother had Alzheimer’s, and it was terrible to watch the person I knew and loved slowly have her personality morph into an entirely different being.

Her body lived 15 years after her mind died.

I, too, am a participant in an Alzheimer’s study, but at NYU-Langone Medical Center. I enrolled when I was 65. Every year, they put me through some interesting cognitive and medical exams so they can track my progress. When I die, they get my brain.

No big deal. I’m done using it. Some folks might claim I never used it, but that’s neither here nor there.

Alzheimer’s research is critical scientific work that helps push back the boundaries of our ignorance. Parenthetically, I have also given instructions that when I die, medical authorities can — and should — use whatever is left of my body for scientific or humane purposes, including transplant.

Our deeds live long after we take our last breath. And this is one way to rage against the dying of the light.

Don Appel

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