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Published on: February 16, 2011
Grief, trauma and mistaken identity: Ethically deceiving people living with dementia in complex cases
1Department of Philosophy, Kings College London, London, UK.
Abstract:
Across care settings, the practice of lying to or withholding the truth from people living with dementia is common, yet it is objected to by many. Contrary to this common discomfort, I have argued in previous work that respecting members of this group as moral equals sometimes requires deceiving them. In this paper, I test my proposed practice against complex, controversial cases, demonstrating both its theoretical strength and its practical value for those working in social care.
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