title: Alzheimer's disease and euthanasia.
abstract: Employing the tenets of philosophical materialism, this paper discusses the ethical debate surrounding assisted suicide for persons suffering end-stage Alzheimer's. It first presents a classification of the dissociative situations between "human individual" and "human person". It then moves on to discuss challenges to diagnosed persons and their caregivers in relation to the cardinal virtues of Spinozistic ethics--strength of character (fortitudo), firmness (animositas) and generosity (generositas). Finally, a number of ideas attached to the debate--"right of choice", "death with dignity", "quality of life" and "compassion in dying"--are discussed in order to clarify their foundations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Oviedo University, Spain. dalvar@uniovi.es
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alvargonzález
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D002605:Character; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D010344:Patient Advocacy / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D028723:Personhood; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012297:Right to Die / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology; D012945:Social Values; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States