Forcible Amputation in Delusional Patients: A Narrative Analysis of Decisional Capacity.
Publication/Presentation Date
1-1-2019
Abstract
This case study concerns the predicaments faced by two women who each had been advised by her physicians to have a gangrenous foot amputated to prevent the potentially fatal spread of infection. In both cases, the determination of the patients' decisional capacity was a critical component in judging whether or not to honor their medical treatment decisions. The communicative complexity of navigating a double bind, a situation in which a person confronts a choice between two undesirable courses of action, is also discussed. The patients in these cases had no medically appropriate choice that also respected other valued outcomes, such as independence, a sense of dignity, or control over one's destiny. Taken together, these cases raise issues about the context-specific meaning of decisional capacity and its role in informed consent.
Volume
9
Issue
3
First Page
247
Last Page
257
ISSN
2157-1740
Published In/Presented At
Roscoe, L. A., Schenck, D. P., & Eisenberg, J. L. (2019). Forcible Amputation in Delusional Patients: A Narrative Analysis of Decisional Capacity. Narrative inquiry in bioethics, 9(3), 247–257. https://doi.org/10.1353/nib.2019.0059
Disciplines
Psychiatry
PubMedID
31956129
Department(s)
Department of Psychiatry
Document Type
Article