Can Living Wills and Advanced Directives Offer Guidance?
How can carers, families and doctors weigh up what treatment and care a person would have wanted before they developed dementia, and what they appear to want now? Advance decisions or ‘living wills’ set out what treatment people would wish to accept, or refuse, at a point in the future when they are unable to make decisions for themselves. For example, someone might state that if they develop dementia and are no longer able to recognise their close relatives, then they would not wish to be given life-extending treatments. Some believe that everyone should make advance directives to cover future possible situations. Others are sceptical that people are able to fully imagine how they will feel if they develop dementia, and therefore predict the kinds of decisions they would make in that situation. Is Deception More Acceptable in Late Stage Alzheimer’s? Deception and acceptability may seem on opposite ends of a continuum when it comes to care but we do need to take stock of why we might b
