Incapacity and Care

What are the duties of carers and health professionals to people with mental incapacity? How ought we to think about the ethical and legal issues? What can any of us do to improve and safeguard the lives of those cared for?

Changing legislation and differing views on human worth and status have had profound effects on how these questions are answered. This book is aimed at bringing clarity to the debate and finding ethically robust answers to such questions. Among the topics discussed are withholding treatment, tube-feeding patients with dementia, medical research, and sterilisation of intellectually disabled adults. Contributors come from a wide range of disciplines, including psychiatry, nursing, philosophy, theology and law. The book includes an up-to-date account of non-voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands and Belgium, together with a chapter exploring some aspects of Britain’s Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Flyer available here.

Preface – Helen Watt

Introduction – Bishop Donal Murray

1 Incapacity and personhood: Respecting the non-autonomous self – David Albert Jones

2 From beneficence to love: Adequate care for the mentally incapacitated – Aaron Kheriaty

3 Human dignity and the intellectually disabled person: Can prevention of harm justify sterilisation?– Anthony McCarthy

4 Justifying research without consent – Helen Watt

5 Non-voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands and Belgium – Wendy E Hiscox

6 The Mental Capacity Act 2005: Some ethical and legal issues – John Finnis

7 PEG tubes in end-stage dementia: Benefits and burdens– Johanna Valiquette