Alzheimer's Case Study

My name is Doc. Hemans from John Hopkins Hospital. At the start of November I received a new patient whose name was John. John is faced with Alzheimer’s and so he is going through a transition in his life. John is 65 years old and has been battling with Alzheimer’s for 3 years. Before John was afflicted with Alzheimer’s he signed a documentation to statethat he did not want to live with this disease; he stated that when he gets to around three years in his Alzheimer’s he wanted to be put to death. However, upon his arrival he made it clear to me that he does not want to be put to death. I understand that John has Alzheimer’s so therefore he does not fully understand the choices in which he is faced with. I spoke to John’s wife and she stated …show more content…
As a physician my first job is to care for my patient and to respect the autonomy of my patients. An individual is autonomous if they can live their lives or make decisions through reasoning and these decisions are not manipulated by any other factors and in John’s case it is affected by the fact that he has Alzheimer’s. Through out my years as a doctor, I have seen many things that compromise autonomy. However, in John’s case, his autonomy was altered when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Therefore, this puts him at a disadvantage when asked live which contradicts his sign documentation. In this case some of the greatest difficulties I faced when it comes to John is determining whether or not I should listen to Johns request or his wife. I say this to say that John is a 65 year old patient who is fully capable of making his own life decision however with his Alzheimer’s he is no longer competent enough to make this decision or for me to take is decision into account. His wife on the other hand even though John requested I know that his wife would be a little biased to his decision because she knew the husband of hers who did not want to live with …show more content…
When John signed the paper stating his wishes when he was fully competent, however I do believe that his current decision should still be considered. I say this because as individuals we do not imagine ourselves suffering or in any other conditions any incompetent conditions for that matter, When we are in our competent state that is the state of mind in which we think I. I can strongly say that people have a hard time imaging themselves with any kind of defect, impairment or abnormality. I say this because this is something that I do. When John signed his documentation he was keeping his interest at the time in mind. He was imagining what it would be like as aperson with Alzheimer’s and making a decision based on this. John did not whether living with Alzheimer’s would be living conditions or