PHIL 1550 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: If And Only If, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Personal Identity
23 Feb 2017
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When meredith is 55, she is diagnosed w/ early-stage alzheimer"s. She knows exactly what the disease does to one"s mind, since she watched her mother die from it. She thus signs an advance directive instructing doctors that they are not to use any extraordinary means to keep her alive if she gets seriously ill after becoming demented. But once meredith actually gets to that state and contracts pneumonia, it turns out that she is perfectly content, and when asked, expresses a preference to stay alive. Which wishes should be respected (older meredith or younger. Respect for one"s precedent autonomy respecting a person"s earlier, more competent preferences when that person is currently incompetent. Substituted judgment: judgments based on what the patient would have wanted: psychological criterion ym is the same as om, if ym is uniquely psychological continuous w/ om (there must be enough psychological continuity)
