失智症倫理議題：患者、家屬與醫療人員的共同問題

Ethical Considerations in Dementia

在無法治癒的失智症漫長的疾病過程中，患者、家屬與醫療人員面對了許多在醫療與長期照顧上的倫理議題：告不告知診斷、是否接受治療、是否繼續工作、是否有行為能力、是否檢測基因、是否作財產規劃、是否限制法律能力、是否預立醫囑等。隨著對失智症的研究與相關醫學的進步，對上述失智症有關的倫理議題也會有不同的見解，期待透過更多人對失智症倫理議題的重視與投入，同時也應該考量社會文化背景，能對相關倫理議題有共識，讓失智患者得到更完善的照顧，對患者家屬與照顧者所造成的負擔能夠減到最少。

Ethical considerations have become a frequent problem for patients with dementia, family members, and medical personnel when facing this currently untreatable and irreversible disorder. Ethical issues include: disclosure of diagnosis, to know or not to know, to treat or not treat, work or retire, competence or incompetence, gene/biomarkers survey or not, and restriction of legal or financial rights or not, among others. Due to different social and cultural backgrounds, we need more research and study regarding the ethical issues of patients with dementia in order to form better consensus for enabling patients, family members, caregivers, and medical personnel to make better decisions for treatment and care of dementia.