‘I am your son, mother’: severe dementia and duties to visit parents who can’t recognise you

This article challenges Mills ’ argument. Not only can children be duty-bound to visit parents who have lost the ability to recognise them, I argue that many children do in fact have such duties. As I show, these duties are grounded in any special interests that their parents have in their company; the fact that visiting their parents might allow them to comply with generic duties of sociability; and/or the fact that such visits allow them to express any gratitude that they owe their parents.
Source: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research