Geriatric Case Reports: Issues of Justice and Proportionality

Abstract

The practice of medicine has become increasingly focused on the care of the elderly due to demographic changes and an increase in human longevity. A number of diseases, most particularly dementia and vasculopathy, are much more common in geriatric patients. Ethical dilemmas related to justice (right patient/right care) and proportionality (benefit/burden analysis) are typical in this population. Two cases from clinical practice are utilized to demonstrate these ethical problems in real-world narratives and provide reasonable moral guidance rooted in the Catholic tradition. The author recognizes that there may be different clinical assessments based on practitioner experience and the medical literature, but asserts that the ethical principles derived are solidly defensible and universal.