Table of Contents
Chapter 1 This Strange Phenomenon 1
The As Yet Unpinned Subject 1
To What Extent Are We Willing to Allow Parentalist Stances by Our Government into Our Lives? 4
Should Reason, and Our Fealty to It, Blind Us to the Human Position of "Unreason"? 7
Should "Undesirables" Be "Dealt with" through Law? 12
Mentally Competent Seniors Who Are Perceived to Self-Neglect: A Composite 14
Scope 19
Why Should We Focus on Mentally Competent Seniors Who Are Perceived to Self-Neglect? 23
The Approach: Descriptive with an Excusing Condition 28
Chapter 2 Fuzzy Borders 31
Incompetency as Political Problem 32
Fissures in Rules and Reason 33
Competence, Capacity, Self-Neglect, Elder Abuse, and Seniors 36
Mental Competence 36
Capacity 48
Self-Neglect and Elder Abuse 55
Seniors 59
Confusion on the Front Lines 60
Chapter 3 Values of the Body Politic 61
The Right to Be Let Alone 63
Autonomy as a Check against Unwanted Reach of the State 69
OK, Political Values Are Important, but There Is Still a Problem with My Parent (or Neighbor, or 82
Chapter 4 What Can Be Done? 84
Perpetrators and Victims 85
Sometimes It's Not Who They Are or What They Are, but Where They Are 86
Do They Live Alone? 88
Interior or Exterior? 90
Housing Density 91
Legal Interests in Residence 94
From Whence Do the Possibilities Arise? 101
State Governments 102
Federal Government 103
Legal Theories That Might Apply, Given the Right Set of Facts 104
Actions against the Mentally Competent Senior Who Is Perceived to Self-Neglect 104
Actions against Someone Else 106
Choices Are Thin 121
Chapter 5 What Should Be Done? 123
Undesirables, and Law as "the Great Mucilage" 124
General Policy Principles 130
Policy Considerations 132
What Does Not Work 133
What Might Work 134
Notes 137
Bibliography 185
Index 195
