Applied Ethics Forum: Eden Lin

Applied Ethics Forum

Eden Lin (Ohio State University), ‘Should we respect the past desires of people with dementia?’ • Thursday 26 Apr 2018, 3:30pm–5:00pm, LA1–300

Abstract: Consider a person with dementia who has a medical condition that requires a certain kind of treatment. Suppose that, although she now has no objection to undergoing such treatment, before she had dementia, she desired not to undergo such treatment were she ever to have dementia. Should we respect this person’s past desire not to undergo the treatment? The answer to this question will likely depend in part on the answer to a further question: would our respecting this past desire benefit this person (i.e., increase her well-being)? I will explore how different theories of well-being might answer this question, with an emphasis on the implications of desire-satisfaction theories of well-being.