(Futurism has reached out to the authors about the woman’s ability to consent to the eyebrow-raising treatment given her state.)
This is a weird gripe and seems to be the main argument of the article, as this is true of all treatment of dementia and Alzheimers or truly any severely impaired mental state… which is why the person with power of attorney makes the decision.
That all aside it literally cannot hurt if the patient is truly in ‘advanced stages of Alzheimer’s’ as that is a living hell that absolutely no one should suffer through. Even if it just acts as palliative care during experimentation it should be allowed.
What pushes that gripe from weird to absurd is in their own words:
“Consent for the intervention was therefore provided by her legally authorized representative, who was also closely involved in her care and familiar with her medical condition.”
Best case scenario it alleviates symptoms, worst case they relive the same trip constantly until it wears off which at least from the anecdote appears to have not been a bad trip. Either way that’s a better existence than being a five year old in a 80 year olds body one minute, and acutely lucid and aware of how little you have control of the next.
This is a weird gripe and seems to be the main argument of the article, as this is true of all treatment of dementia and Alzheimers or truly any severely impaired mental state… which is why the person with power of attorney makes the decision.
That all aside it literally cannot hurt if the patient is truly in ‘advanced stages of Alzheimer’s’ as that is a living hell that absolutely no one should suffer through. Even if it just acts as palliative care during experimentation it should be allowed.
What pushes that gripe from weird to absurd is in their own words:
Saying that it cant hurt isnt true though, for all you and me know, it could make that living hell you mentioned even more living.
Best case scenario it alleviates symptoms, worst case they relive the same trip constantly until it wears off which at least from the anecdote appears to have not been a bad trip. Either way that’s a better existence than being a five year old in a 80 year olds body one minute, and acutely lucid and aware of how little you have control of the next.