Open AccessEthical Deception? Responding to Parallel Subjectivities in People Living with Dementia
Author(s) -
Matilda Carter
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
disability studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2159-8371
pISSN - 1041-5718
DOI - 10.18061/dsq.v40i3.6444
Subject(s) - deception , lying , duty , worry , dementia , psychology , sociology , self deception , social psychology , law , political science , medicine , psychiatry , anxiety , disease , pathology , radiology
Many caregivers feel that they need to lie or withhold the truth from people living with dementia, but worry that, in doing so, they are violating a duty to tell the truth. In this article, I argue that withholding the truth from and, in limited circumstances, lying to people living with dementia is not only morally permissible, but morally required by a more general requirement that we treat each other as persons worthy of respect. I do so through an analysis of the groundings of the duty to tell the truth, and a critical reflection on its cognitively ableist construction.