Making Medical Decisions for the Profoundly Mentally Disabled

The relation between autonomy-based rights and profoundly mentally disabled persons.

A chapter from his forthcoming book "Deciding for the Profoundly Mentally Disabled," Professor Norman Cantor argues persuasively for the right of incompetent persons to have a surrogate make critical medical decisions on their behalf, particularly in the context of refusing life-sustaining treatment. While abusive surrogate decision-making is always a concern, Professor Cantor recommends both s...

Making medical decisions for patients without surrogates.

P who are decisionally incapacitated but haven’t provided advance directives for their health care and have no health care surrogates — sometimes called the “unbefriended” or “unrepresented” — are some of the most powerless and marginalized members of society. Most of the unrepresented are elderly, homeless, mentally disabled, or socially alienated. Yet medical decision making for these vulnera...

Designing Software for Mentally Disabled Persons

Different types of software applications for mentally disabled persons are presented here, with their advantages and drawbacks. The specification of an authoring system is emphasized in this paper, as work is currently in progress to develop such a system in our university.

Screening for Strongyloides infection among the institutionalized mentally disabled.

BACKGROUND Strongyloidiasis is an intestinal helminthic infection common among the mentally disabled population and can cause persistent occult infection before resulting in disseminated, possibly fatal disease. METHODS Two cases of strongyloidiasis are described. The literature was searched using the key words "Strongyloides" and "mass screening." RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Strongyloidiasis is...

Tort Responsibility of Mentally Disabled Persons