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Dementia, death and advance directives.

Wolff, J; (2012) Dementia, death and advance directives. Health Econ Policy Law , 7 (4) 499 - 506. 10.1017/S1744133112000278. Green open access

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Abstract

This article considers the ethics of advance directives, especially in relation to conditions such as dementia. For some choices, such as over whether one's life should end at home or in a hospice, advance directives can be very enlightened and helpful. For others, such as those to end the life of an autonomous subject, against their will, have no moral appeal and would rightly be ignored. In a wide range of intermediate cases, given our typical lack of insight into how changes in our health condition will affect us in other ways, we should be very cautious indeed in promoting the use of advance directives in end-of-life decisions, at least where a reasonable quality of life remains. There may be some reasons for giving priority to the earlier autonomous self over a later, contented but non-autonomous self, but these reasons seem far from compelling.

Type: Article
Title: Dementia, death and advance directives.
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1017/S1744133112000278
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744133112000278
Language: English
Additional information: © Cambridge University Press 2012
Keywords: Advance Directives, Attitude to Death, Dementia, Great Britain, Hospice Care, Humans, Quality of Life
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1378165
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