Centre for Policy on Ageing



Ignorance is bliss? — Ethics of withholding information
Author(s)	Oliver O'Mara
Journal title	FPOP Newsletter, no 122, January 2013
Publisher	British Psychological Society, January 2013
Pages	pp 69-74
Source	www.bps.org.uk
Keywords	Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Information needs ; Social ethics ; Rights [elderly].
Annotation	This short essay highlights some of the dynamics that can occur in ethical decision-making with older people. To illustrate a course of action that might be taken, the author uses a fictitious example of an older man with dementia whose partner had died a year before. The hope is that informed, objective decisions are being made about individual cases, and removing or at least noticing a person's feelings from the situation. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics report, 'Dementia: ethical issues' (2009) highlights differences of opinions about whether being truthful or telling white lies are adopted as a course of action. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-130322218 A
Classmark	EA: LK7: UV:IK: TQ: IKR
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.