Too often the basic rights of people with dementia are overlooked

A FEW MONTHS before Vera mistook her grandson for a coconut, her son came by with someone she did not recognise. He was indeed a stranger, a local solicitor. He gave her a paper to sign, having first checked that she was fully aware of what she was doing, indeed, “as sharp as two tacks”. Thus did she sign away her money, property and decision-making rights to her son, this writer. The solicitor was right to think that he had only benevolent intentions. But this was a process, like many others, in which the rights of people with dementia can easily be forgotten.