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Experts: Tagging May Hurt Demented Patients' Rights Fri Oct 18, 1:23 PM ET By Alison McCook NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some people with deteriorated mental functioning, or dementia, tend to wander, straying from home with little idea where they are going or how to get back. Although this potentially dangerous habit that can be stressful to those who love and care for them, the use of electronic tags to track patients may be unethical, according to UK researchers. 'If used inappropriately, electronic tagging could restrict the individual's liberty, privacy and dignity--it is therefore potentially in breach of fundamental human rights,' Drs. Julian Hughes of Newcastle General Hospital and Stephen Louw of Freeman Hospital, both in Newcastle upon Tyne, told Reuters Health in an e-mail interview. Such electronic tagging usually involves a wristband, which triggers an alarm or signal to allow caretakers to track down the wearer when he or she strays out of a certain area, such as the home and garden or neighborhood. However, do the benefits of electronic tagging outweigh the cost of infringing on demented patients' rights to move about as they please? Perhaps not, according to Hughes and Louw. 'We would argue that people with mild dementia may wish to wander and they may in fact have the legal competency (capacity) to insist that they be allowed to wander; they would therefore be within their rights to refuse a tagging device if their entitlement to exert those rights were explained to them,' the researchers said. Electronic tagging has many points in its favor, the authors added. Caretakers are often attracted to it if they believe the device will allow them to reach the patient sooner, and some proponents argue that ensuring a person's safety is more important than a potential loss of freedom. Some also say that although some patients with dementia may be embarrassed to wear an electronic tagging device, that embarrassment may not compare
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