[SydPhil] Macquarie Philosophy WiP Seminar Tuesday 26th April Dr Hojjat Soofi

[Pierrick Bourrat]

Dear All,

Our next seminar will be on Tuesday April 26th from 1-2pm.

Attend in-person at 25C Wally's Walk, Room C326.

Or, join us on zoom at this link: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/LQmpCK1DvKTq84D03IMghdm?domain=macquarie.zoom.us<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/xnJXCL7EwMfPNQk5EtqQqdK?domain=aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com>
    Zoom Password: seminar

Dr Hojjat Soofi (Macquarie)

Title
Using Antipsychotic Medications for Self-Defence Purposes by Care Staff in Residential Aged Care Facilities: An Ethical Analysis

Abstract
People with dementia at times exhibit threatening and physically aggressive behaviour towards care staff in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Current clinical guidelines recommend judicious use of antipsychotic (AP) medications when there is an immediate risk of harm to care staff in RACFs and non-pharmacological interventions have failed to avert the threats. This paper examines an account of how this recommendation can be ethically defensible: caregivers in RACFs may have a prima facie ethical justification, in certain cases, to use APs as acts of self-defence. I examine whether such uses of APs meet the three commonly invoked conditions of ethically permissible acts of self-defence -- namely, the conditions of liability, proportionality, and necessity and I argues that such conditions obtain only in a restricted range of cases. The liability constraint can be satisfied if residents are the only ones who are causally responsible for the threats they pose. Further, the condition of proportionality obtains if there is sufficient objective ground to demonstrate that the harm of using the medications do not outweigh the good to be secured. Lastly, the necessity condition obtains when the medications are used at their lowest effective dosage and caregivers in RACFs can reasonably assume that, for the purpose of averting threats posed by residents, the use of APs is the only available course of action. Not meeting any of these fairly stringent conditions renders uses of APs as acts of self-defence in RACFs morally impermissible actions.


Find details of upcoming seminars on our department website: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/N9HXCMwGxOt5xz2GEuJDluo?domain=mq.edu.au<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/N9HXCMwGxOt5xz2GEuJDluo?domain=mq.edu.au>.

For any queries relating to Macquarie Philosophy work-in-progress seminars please contact katrina.hutchison at mq.edu.au<mailto:katrina.hutchison at mq.edu.au> or pierrick.bourrat at mq.edu.au<mailto:pierrick.bourrat at mq.edu.au>.

Best wishes,
Pierrick

Pierrick Bourrat | DECRA Fellow & Senior Lecturer

[https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/XVmbCNLJyQUNVjZ1viR9LZa?domain=docs.google.com]

Philosophy Department| Macquarie University | NSW | 2109
W www.pierrickbourrat.com<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/bcFYCOMKzVTA5vNoqIPCFzx?domain=pierrickbourrat.com>

Research Affiliate, The University of Sydney
Theory and Method in Biosciences | W griffithslab.org<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ijD7CP7LAXf4v30qyir0hrG?domain=griffithslab.org>

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