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Ethical Guidelines of the Alzheimer Society of Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

John D. Fisk*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry and Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax
A. Dessa Sadovnick
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Carole A. Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto
Serge Gauthier
Affiliation:
McGill Centre for Studies in Aging, McGill University, Montreal
John Dossetor
Affiliation:
Bioethics Centre, University of Alberta and Capital Health, Edmonton
Astrid Eberhart
Affiliation:
Alzheimer Society of Canada
Linda LeDuc
Affiliation:
Alzheimer Society of Canada
*
Alzheimer Society of Canada, 20 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 1200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4R 1K8
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Abstract:

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Alzheimer's disease raises numerous ethical issues which vary and evolve over the course of the illness. In recognition of the need for ongoing discussion of these issues, the Alzheimer Society of Canada established a Task Force on Ethics in 1995. Through a process of “discourse ethics” and consultation on a national scale, the Task Force produced a series of guidelines dealing with the issues of: communicating the diagnosis, driving, respecting individual choice, quality of life, participation in research, genetic testing, the use of restraints, and end-of-life care. This manuscript presents a summary of these guidelines as well as a summary of the ideas on which they were based. It was the hope of the Society that the publication of these guidelines will serve to facilitate discussion of the ethics of care of those with Alzheimer's disease.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1998

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