Clarifying the Concept of Human Dignity in the Care of the Elderly

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Win TADD ◽  
Linus VANLAERE ◽  
Chris GASTMANS
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 264-271
Author(s):  
Rachel E. López

The elderly prison population continues to rise along with higher rates of dementia behind bars. To maintain the detention of this elderly population, federal and state prisons are creating long-term care units, which in turn carry a heavy financial burden. Prisons are thus gearing up to become nursing homes, but without the proper trained staff and adequate financial support. The costs both to taxpayers and to human dignity are only now becoming clear. This article squarely addresses the second dimension of this carceral practice, that is the cost to human dignity. Namely, it sets out why indefinitely incarcerating someone with dementia or other neurocognitive disorders violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. This conclusion derives from the confluence of two lines of U.S. Supreme Court precedent. First, in Madison v. Alabama, the Court recently held that executing someone (in Madison’s case someone with dementia) who cannot rationally understand their sentence amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Second, in line with Miller v. Alabama, which puts life without parole (LWOP) sentences in the same class as death sentences due to their irrevocability, this holding should be extended to LWOP sentences. Put another way, this article explains why being condemned to life is equivalent to death for someone whose neurodegenerative disease is so severe that they cannot rationally understand their punishment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lexo Zardiashvili ◽  
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga

AbstractHealthcare robots enable practices that seemed far-fetched in the past. Robots might be the solution to bridge the loneliness that the elderly often experience; they may help wheelchair users walk again, or may help navigate the blind. European Institutions, however, acknowledge that human contact is an essential aspect of personal care and that the insertion of robots could dehumanize caring practices. Such instances of human–robot interactions raise the question to what extent the use and development of robots for healthcare applications can challenge the dignity of users. In this article, therefore, we explore how different robot applications in the healthcare domain support individuals in achieving ‘dignity’ or pressure it. We argue that since healthcare robot applications are novel, their associated risks and impacts may be unprecedented and unknown, thus triggering the need for a conceptual instrument that is binding and remains flexible at the same time. In this respect, as safety rules and data protection are often criticized to lack flexibility, and technology ethics to lack enforceability, we suggest human dignity as the overarching governance instrument for robotics, which is the inviolable value upon which all fundamental rights are grounded.


Author(s):  
Lucas Yuzo Abe Tanaka ◽  
Cleide Aparecida Gomes Rodrigues Fermentão

O ASSÉDIO MORAL AO IDOSO PELO DESRESPEITO AO DIREITO PERSONALÍSSIMO DE ENVELHECER COM DIGNIDADE: UMA AFRONTA AO PRINCÍPIO DA DIGNIDADE HUMANA  THE MORAL HARASSMENT THE ELDERLY BY THE INFRINGEMENT PERSONALITY RIGHTS WITH DIGNITY: AN AFFRONT TO PRINCIPLE OF HUMAN DIGNITY   Lucas Yuzo Abe Tanaka*Cleide Aparecida Gomes Rodrigues Fermentão**  RESUMO: O princípio da Dignidade da Pessoa Humana é o que fundamenta a Constituição Federal de 1988, pelo que as demais normas e princípios devem retirar o seu fundamento.  Consagrou que é dever do Estado, da família e da sociedade em auxiliar os idosos para o seu pleno desenvolvimento de sua dignidade, garantindo-se assim o direito à vida e o respeito ao seu direito personalíssimo. O abandono ao idoso pela família, pelo Estado e pela sociedade, pode configura-se não apenas como um assédio moral, mas também um desrespeito ao Princípio da Dignidade Humana, e ainda ao seu direito personalíssimo de envelhecer. Assim, o presente trabalho sustenta a relevo do Estado, da sociedade e da família no papel de abrigar a dignidade da pessoa humana deste individuo. Para tanto, no trabalho cientifico, foi empregado o método teórico que versa na pesquisa de obras e artigos circulares específicos que tratam sobre o tema. Ademais analisa a situação dos idosos frente ao abandono, o assédio moral como uma violação à dignidade humana dos idosos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Assédio Moral. Envelhecer. Direitos da Personalidade. Dignidade Humana. ABSTRACT: The principle of Human Dignity is the foundation of the Federal Constitution of 1988, so, any other norms and principles should draw from its foundation. It established to the state, family and society the duty of helping the elderly to the full development of their dignity, thus guaranteeing the right to life and respect for their personal right. The abandonment of the elderly by his family, the state and society, is set up not only as moral harassment, but also a disregard for the principle of human dignity, and even to the personal right to grow old. Thus, this study supports the role of harboring the human dignity of the individual by the state, the society and the family. Therefore, in this scientific work, we used the theoretical method which deals in the works of research and specific circular articles that deal with the subject. Furthermore the situation of the elderly against abandonment and moral harassment is analyzed as a violation of human dignity of the elderly. KEYWORDS: Moral Harassment. Aging. Personality Rights. Human Dignity.  SUMÁRIO: Introdução. 1 Os Direitos da Personalidade. 2 Da Dignidade Humana. 3 A Tutela Jurídica dos Idosos. 4 O Envelhecimento e os Direitos da Personalidade. 5 O Assédio Moral ao Idoso causando Dor e Constrangimento, pelo Desrespeito ao Direito Personalíssimo de Envelhecer com Dignidade. Considerações Finais. Referências.* Mestrando em Ciências Jurídicas pelo Centro Universitário de Maringá (Unicesumar), Paraná. Professor do curso de Direito do Centro Universitário de Maringá (Unicesumar), Paraná.** Doutora em Direito pela Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR). Professora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito do Centro Universitário de Maringá (Unicesumar), Paraná.


Author(s):  
Teila Rocha Lins D'Albuquerque

Resumo: O presente artigo investiga a ingerência da autonomia privada nas relações de direito de família. Parte-se da nova concepção de família em que existe liberdade de atuação entre as partes componentes da entidade familiar para definir os contornos de suas vidas e alcançar uma realização plena, exercendo direitos fundamentais da dignidade da pessoa humana e autonomia privada. Essa reflexão inclui a própria composição familiar, o regime de bens do casamento e a negação da autonomia ao idoso, situações que têm se alterado junto às atuais diretrizes de estudo e aplicação do direito civil à luz da Constituição Federal.Asbtract: This paper investigates the interference of private autonomy in family law relationships. It starts with the new concept of family where there is freedom of action between the component parts of a family unit to define the contours of their lives and achieve fulfillment, exercising fundamental rights of human dignity and personal autonomy. This reflection includes family composition itself, the matrimonial property regime and the denial of autonomy to the elderly, situations that has changed with the current study guidelines of civil law in the light of the Constitution.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Kampe

Human dignity in the field of caring for the elderly: from a theoretical perspective, this research project examines what geriatric nurses understand by the notion of respecting human dignity in their daily nursing duties. With the help of qualitative interviews, the author addresses the question of what respecting human dignity in the field of caring for the elderly means. The findings of this subjective study are intended to show that, as a result of their own experiences, geriatric nurses have diverse opinions on this subject. The author first processes the data she has gathered with a transcription and then codifies that data in order to develop categories. In this way, she is able to interpret the interviews and either dismiss or verify certain hypotheses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 142-152
Author(s):  
Rudolf Novotný ◽  
Zuzana Novotná ◽  
Štefánia Andraščíková ◽  
Peter Firment

Abstract The paper discusses the problem of triaging the elderly in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis by analyzing the triage process, caused by lack of resources, in Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. We apply inductive, deductive, and normative bioethical methods, comment on various recommendations for the indication of intensive care during a crisis, and discuss the utilitarianism of benefit maximization. As it follows from the evaluation of the elderly by the frailty parameter, medically inappropriate treatment, as a result of limited resources, is characterized by clinical and bioethical uncertainty. If the main bioethical objective of general bioethics for the COVID-19 pandemic is, in the case of limited resources, based on the non-utilitarian consequentialism paradigm, from the perspective of medical ethics, we face a borderline situation closely related to the topic of dying and death. Such a situation requires social, ethical, and professional reflection. An algorithm for intensive care indication in the situation of crisis and limited resources in the period of the pandemic requires a definition of criteria that identify an acceptable reason for abandoning the treatment in the context of the autonomy of the elderly and by respecting their human dignity and humanity. A global objective of general bioethics in the situation of the pandemic crisis should be based on the paradigm of social justice.


Author(s):  
J. Jacob ◽  
M.F.M. Ismail

Ultrastructural changes have been shown to occur in the urinary bladder epithelium (urothelium) during the life span of humans. With increasing age, the luminal surface becomes more flexible and develops simple microvilli-like processes. Furthermore, the specialised asymmetric structure of the luminal plasma membrane is relatively more prominent in the young than in the elderly. The nature of the changes at the luminal surface is now explored by lectin-mediated adsorption visualised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Samples of young adult (21-31 y old) and elderly (58-82 y old) urothelia were fixed in buffered 2% glutaraldehyde for 10 m and washed with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) containing Ca++ and Mg++ at room temperature. They were incubated overnight at 4°C in 0.1 M ammonium chloride in PBS to block any remaining aldehyde groups. The samples were then allowed to stand in PBS at 37°C for 2 h before incubation at 37°C for 30 m with lectins. The lectins used were concanavalin A (Con A), wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM) at a concentration of 500 mg/ml in PBS at pH 7.A.


1988 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 516-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Mann ◽  
TJ Bomberg ◽  
JM Holtzman ◽  
DB Berkey
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Angel L. Ball ◽  
Adina S. Gray

Pharmacological intervention for depressive symptoms in institutionalized elderly is higher than the population average. Among the patients on such medications are those with a puzzling mix of symptoms, diagnosed as “dementia syndrome of depression,” formerly termed “pseudodementia”. Cognitive-communicative changes, potentially due to medications, complicate the diagnosis even further. This discussion paper reviews the history of the terminology of “pseudodementia,” and examines the pharmacology given as treatment for depressive symptoms in the elderly population that can affect cognition and communication. Clinicians can reduce the risk of misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment by having an awareness of potential side effects, including decreased attention, memory, and reasoning capacities, particularly due to some anticholinergic medications. A team approach to care should include a cohesive effort directed at caution against over-medication, informed management of polypharmacology, enhancement of environmental/communication supports and quality of life, and recognizing the typical nature of some depressive signs in elderly institutionalized individuals.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document