People with Alzheimer’s disease are affected in a variety of ways that may result in questions arising regarding their competency to make decisions about sundry personal matters. In an indeterminate number of cases, persons with AD may be tested clinically and found to be “incompetent”. Although they may be found to be lacking in a particular capacity, the application of the term, “incompetent” may result in
1.) a loss of autonomy far beyond the decision making capacity in question, and
2.) a stigma which leads to dysfunctional treatment by healthy others.
People with AD in the moderate to severe stages may still be semiotic subjects whose behavior is driven by meaning derived via the use of evaluative cognitive capacities that remain intact. The label of incompetence itself must be modified to take into account intact semiotic behavior in order that unjust psychological harm is not added to the specific effects of the disease.
Back to S098 How Do We Decide About Competency: Ethical Views From Clinical, Legal, Psychological and Philosophical Fields.
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