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If someone has full blown Alzheimers, can they undo their agency? “Undo”? I would say they are in an innocent state. I would agree with Orson. They are innocent. Free Agency stopped when Alzheimers took over.
Mike from Milton.
Hmm… but there’s still degrees here. Mild Alzheimers = some memory loss, but high functioning. I just don’t know much of Alzheimers, but as you said about degrees of it, it would seem to depend on what’s going on inside the mind. Perhaps they’ve lost memories, or can’t remember faces or names or things, but do they still make choices based on moral beliefs? Or are they not aware of what’s going on? I would think that perhaps their brain is working differently, but they are still choosing whether to be loving or helpful to others, even if they don’t know who those others may be. In that case, they still have agency to decide what to do, but are just limited on what their brain can process.
For example, could you still have a conversation about Christ with someone who suffers with the disease? Do they still choose to believe in Christ or other things, even if short term memory is blocked? I think I was able to with my grandmother. So I think she still had agency, although she wasn’t severe with hers.
just a guess.
I think the operative phrase is “full blown” – and, in that case, I don’t believe agency exists in any real, practical way anymore. Without that phrase, I have no clue – and I’m glad I don’t have to make that call.
SamBee wrote:Hmm… but there’s still degrees here.
Seems like that pretty much answers the question: There are degrees. It doesn’t seem reasonable that Free Agency is either always all-on or always all-off. In the case of mental illness or lack of capacity, there should be degrees of understanding and choice.
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