INCAPACITATED, ALONE
AND TREATED TO DEATH
By Joseph Sacco, M.D
Published: October 6,
2008
New York Times
Mr. Green lay in the bed next to the window, 15 floors above the
Cross-Bronx Expressway. Fifty-nine years old and suffering from
AIDS-related
dementia, he was bedbound, permanently tethered to a ventilator
and, though conscious, unaware of his medical condition. In
medico-legal parlance, he was incapacitated: unable to understand the
consequences of his decisions and unable to direct the doctors caring
for him. .