Of late I've been getting to know a neighbor of mine, and while the man is absolutely nuts, that's beside the point.
"George" lives with and cares for his aging father, and it is the old man the question is concerned with. Described as suffering dementia and vascular disease (unconfirmed, but his privacy isn't my business, either), the old man is very pleasant, well-humored, and very much wrapped up in whatever moment he happens to find upon himself. But now and then, he'll ask for a cigarette. And on several occasions, I've passed one along to him.
But here's the question: Accepting that he suffers dementia, should I be giving him cigarettes? To the one, he asks. To the other, though, is an issue of competency. That George gives his father a cigarette or beer now and then is not much of an issue; the issue is my own conduct.
I don't think his age really should enter into it, nor the notion of vascular disease. Nor do I really believe that this or that specific cigarette is going to be the end of him. But George is known for leaving the old man alone for a few minutes, or even hours now and then, and what if, in his dementia, the old man burns out the flat? As they haul his charred remains out of the scene, should I feel guilty? Can I even know it was my cigarette? I don't think that point really matters. Is someone no longer capable of signing his own name on a legal document competent to ask for a cigarette?
"George" lives with and cares for his aging father, and it is the old man the question is concerned with. Described as suffering dementia and vascular disease (unconfirmed, but his privacy isn't my business, either), the old man is very pleasant, well-humored, and very much wrapped up in whatever moment he happens to find upon himself. But now and then, he'll ask for a cigarette. And on several occasions, I've passed one along to him.
But here's the question: Accepting that he suffers dementia, should I be giving him cigarettes? To the one, he asks. To the other, though, is an issue of competency. That George gives his father a cigarette or beer now and then is not much of an issue; the issue is my own conduct.
I don't think his age really should enter into it, nor the notion of vascular disease. Nor do I really believe that this or that specific cigarette is going to be the end of him. But George is known for leaving the old man alone for a few minutes, or even hours now and then, and what if, in his dementia, the old man burns out the flat? As they haul his charred remains out of the scene, should I feel guilty? Can I even know it was my cigarette? I don't think that point really matters. Is someone no longer capable of signing his own name on a legal document competent to ask for a cigarette?