About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

35 Ga. L. Rev. 593 (2000-2001)
Freedom Fading: On Dementia, Best Interests, and Public Safety

handle is hein.journals/geolr35 and id is 609 raw text is: FREEDOM FADING: ON DEMENTIA, BEST INTERESTS, AND PUBLIC SAFETY Bruce Jennings* Having Alzheimer's Disease does not make a person evil, but it does sometimes cause behavior that poses a danger to the person with dementia or to others. On what grounds can we justify overriding and restricting the liberty of a person with dementia? How far should such restrictions go? Who should authorize them and who should carry them out, and under what theory? Given that all behavior carries some degree of risk, what level of risk is acceptable? What should society tolerate as a part of the back- ground conditions within which most people conduct their lives? To what level of risk should individuals be allowed to expose them- selves voluntarily? Should risks associated with dementia be treated with special caution and restriction, and if so, should that be called discrimination or special caring? Should persons with medically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease ever be excluded from activities categorically (simply by virtue of their diagnosis) or only situationally (in light of their particular level of functioning and the specific circumstances)? Alzheimer's is both a disease of the brain and a malady of the mind. As a disease, Alzheimer's is an attack on the brain, upsetting its enormously complex and delicate chemistry and circuitry. Beyond that, Alzheimer's is a human catastrophe because it disrupts and distorts the mind, confounding and eventually overwhelming the mind's remarkable durability and resiliency. It is primarily in the former domain that most of our recent, exciting knowledge in the field ofAlzheimer's disease has come.1 The human brain is finally beginning to yield its secrets. Yet new knowledge, * Bruce Jennings, M.A, Senior Research Scholar, The Hastings Center, Garrison, NY; and Lecturer, Yale School ofPublic Health, New Haven, Ct. The author would like to thank Samantha Stokes for research assistance with this article. See generally ANTONIO P. DAMAsIO, DESCARTES! ERROR: EMOTION, REASON, AND THE HUMAN BRAIN (1994) (discussing advances in neuroscience); IMUIN SOUREN & EMILE FRANSSEN, BROKEN CONNETONS: ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE (1994) (providing overview of Alzheimer's Disease stages and symptoms). 593

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most