Ethics and care for the elderly.
This article uses the case of presenile and senile dementia to discuss ethical concepts that have potential to guide nursing action. The concepts of 'sanctity of life' versus 'quality of life' or 'dignity' are both unsatisfactory for directing nursing intervention whenever proxy judgment is necessary. Guidelines for action must evolve from research, the search for clinical knowledge. As an underlying attitude and additional guide the author describes a Jewish ethical perspective which defines dependence and interdependence as an essential part of human existence and accepts the inevitability of living with moral uncertainty.
D000368:Aged; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D004989:Ethics; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005851:Geriatric Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007599:Judaism; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D011788:Quality of Life; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D026712:Value of Life