Ben Davies
  • About
  • CV
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Contact
  • Blog

First thoughts

Diet, changing desires, and dementia

10/7/2019

0 Comments

 

Diet, changing desires, and dementia

Cross-post from the Uehiro Centre's Practical Ethics blog

Last week saw the launch of a campaign (run by the group Vegetarian For Life) that seeks to ensure that older people in care who have ethical commitments to a particular diet are not given food that violates those commitments. This is, as the campaign makes clear, a particularly pressing issue for those who have some form of dementia who may not be capable of expressing their commitment.

Those behind campaign is quite right to note that people’s ethical beliefs should not be ignored simply because they are in care, or have a cognitive impairment (see a Twitter thread where I discuss this with a backer of the campaign). But the idea that one’s dietary ethics must be ‘for life’ got me thinking about a more well-established debate about Advance Directives. (I should stress that what I say here should not be taken to be imputing any particular motivation or philosophical commitments to those behind the campaign itself.)

Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    An occasionally updated blog, for ideas that aren't publishable (yet). 

    Photo credit: Eli Jones

    Archives

    December 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    February 2018
    November 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • About
  • CV
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Contact
  • Blog