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Dementia can yield a richer understanding of what it means to be a person.
Dementia is a condition that has touched the lives of everyone. We all know someone — perhaps someone we love dearly — who has lived or is living with dementia. It is heart-wrenching to watch someone you know and love slowly fade away, not to mention the mental anguish that people with dementia themselves often experience. Yet at the same time, they are still “with us” even when they have lost their capacity to communicate.
Are people living with advanced dementia still persons? On the one hand, we want to avoid ableist assumptions. We want to avoid the trap of saying that people with advanced dementia are “no longer home”. On the other hand, we want to provide a conceptually robust account of what dementia means for a person’s life and wellbeing. We want to say that a person is still a person, regardless of the effects of cognitive decline. But we don’t want to downplay the crippling effects of their condition.
Devastating though it may be, dementia can yield a richer understanding of what it means to be a person and what it means to be present in the world.
Continued below.
Are people with advanced dementia still persons? » MercatorNet
Dementia is a condition that has touched the lives of everyone. We all know someone — perhaps someone we love dearly — who has lived or is living with dementia. It is heart-wrenching to watch someone you know and love slowly fade away, not to mention the mental anguish that people with dementia themselves often experience. Yet at the same time, they are still “with us” even when they have lost their capacity to communicate.
Are people living with advanced dementia still persons? On the one hand, we want to avoid ableist assumptions. We want to avoid the trap of saying that people with advanced dementia are “no longer home”. On the other hand, we want to provide a conceptually robust account of what dementia means for a person’s life and wellbeing. We want to say that a person is still a person, regardless of the effects of cognitive decline. But we don’t want to downplay the crippling effects of their condition.
Devastating though it may be, dementia can yield a richer understanding of what it means to be a person and what it means to be present in the world.
Continued below.
Are people with advanced dementia still persons? » MercatorNet
