Abstract
By generally getting older, we stand a greater chance of in the last phases of our lives not being able to decide for ourselves anymore, either through dementia or through other diseases that affect cognitive functioning. Not everybody ages successfully, after all. Demographic estimations show that with the increase of life expectancy and of the percentage of elderly people in Western societies, the prevalence of dementia and other age related diseases increases greatly too (Plassman et al. 2007). Since in our Western culture we attach great worth to being able to decide for ourselves, this is a frightening prospect. People fear loosing their identity and tend to want to control what will happen to them and therefore may write down advance wishes . Even when they did not, their loved ones, having to take over the promotion of interest of the person who became decisionally incompetent, will try to do what they think the person himself would have wanted, herewith trying to take over self determination .
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Notes
- 1.
Both cases derive from empirical qualitative research done by the author in different nursing homes in the Netherlands, in the years 1999–2008.
- 2.
The issue of the professional responsibility and the relation between the physician’s judgment and the wishes of the patient, exceeds the scope of this paper, and is extensively discussed elsewhere (e.g. Touwen 2010).
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Touwen, D. (2013). Former Wishes and Current Desires. In: Schermer, M., Pinxten, W. (eds) Ethics, Health Policy and (Anti-) Aging: Mixed Blessings. Ethics and Health Policy, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3870-6_9
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