Legal and Ethical Complications in Spoon-Feeding Consent for an Alzheimer’s Patient: A Case Analys

Response to question

Autonomy means freedom or self-determination. It includes the right to make independent decisions regarding one’s life and wellbeing. Autonomy ensures that patient is informed and consented independently and if patient has capacity to consent. Where there is question of capacity, capacity assessment is conducted by an evaluator. According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person (Yeo et al., 2020. P. 117).

In Margot Bentley’s case, it argued that she lost the capacity to consent resulted from her Alzheimer’s disease. She is no longer able to eat herself and is fed with a spoon to her mouth. She opens her mouth when she wants to eat and closes when she does not. The question is should it be used as evidence of consent. It is evidence of her consent. This was supported by Dr. Hilliard, a hospice Palliative care physician and by Dr. O’Connor, a capacity assessor for the province (Yeoet al., 2020. P. 407).

Nursing is the profession where nurses have to face several types legal and ethical complications in order to provide care to their patients. When it is about providing care to a patient with Alzheimer’s disorder these complications are very common (Brémault et al., 2016). In this paper the discussion is based on the case study of Mrs. Bentley, who is an 82 years old female patient suffering with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease.  in this context the issue is regarding taking consent for her spoon-feeding. This paper will cove two relevant questions regarding this case study and a comprehensive conclusion.

According to the case study of Mrs. Bentley it has been found that she was suffering with late-stage Alzheimer’s disorder. from most of the cases of Alzheimer’s it has been found that during the late stages of this disease people are not able to take their decisions by their own as well as unable to express their consent through responses. However, in case of patients can express their feelings or choices through response, then it can assume that he or she consenting for the activity (Thorogood et al., 2018). As there is a chance of developing some confusion regarding consenting, hence, several legal and ethical issues regarding taking consent may take place. Similarly, such issues have been found in this case study.  

The disagreement is about whether the patient was consenting to spoon-feeding or not. As per the caregivers, the behavior of the patient regarding taking some food and declining other was an indication of consenting. Besides that, according to the mental capacity act of 2010, there are some basic statutory principles in order to assess decision-making capacity of the patient. as per the first and second principle of this act it has been stated that, “A person must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established that he lacks capacity” and “A person is not to be treated as unable to make a decision unless all practicable steps to help him to do so have been taken without success.” Hence the care provider considers the response of the patient regarding taking food as a consent (Barnett et al., 2017).

In addition, according to the author, Charles et al (2017), even if a patient has moderate or severe Alzheimer and has clearly diminished capacity, he or she may be able to make a choice and demonstrate some comprehension. There should be done proper assessment processes by the professionals such as Understanding, appreciating, conveying a choice, and reasoning. In this case study the professional care giver used his/her skills and assess that she has the capacity to make decision for selecting food. Hence, after going through the discussion it can be stated that, patients with Alzheimer’s at this stage can provide few or certain consent too, although proper evaluation is needed.