Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease

Stephen G. Post is a professor at the Center for Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University.

With this second edition of The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease, Post has enlarged upon his original work in a way to make it even more useful and current. The updated version now gives a highly readable strategy for dealing with end-of-life issues, such as artificial tube feeding and dehydration. In his characteristically clear manner, Post equips us with the necessary facts and then cogently suggest how to proceed humanely and with absolute consideration of the person who should be at the center of concern. -- Peter M. Jucovey Perspectives in Biology and Medicine Post has provided a well-researched book with an outstanding bibliography that will be helpful to all caregivers as well as health care providers. The text provides information to guide readers before and during ethical and moral decision making and is very sensitive to the various emotions one endures when the diagnosis is AD. Health Progress In summary, then, Post proposes a new ethic in regard to terminal dementia care. The considerations proposed in this book offer a meaningful guide to both health care professionals and families in dealing with these special issues and advocate a natural death for these patients, freeing families from the sometimes enormous sense of guilt they encounter in making decisions about life extending interventions. Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsChapter 1. The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Defining the TaskChapter 2. The Family Caregiver: Partnership in HopeChapter 3. Fairhill Guidelines on Ethics and the Care of People with Alzheimer DiseaseChapter 4. Genetic Education for a Too-Hopeful PublicChapter 5. The Humane Goal: Enhancing the Well-Being of Persons with DementiaChapter 6. Dying with Dignity: The Case Against Artificial Nutrition and HydrationChapter 7. An Argument Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Context of Progressive Dementia Chapter 8. Toward a New Ethics of Dementia CareReferencesIndex