OK, so an old man is dying in the hospital. Basically he is dying of old age, but there is some dementia involved as well. He has times when he is lucid and present, times when he is in an altered reality, and times when he is basically comatose. He asks for beer, and the family buys him non-alcoholic beer. He seemingly dosen’t know the difference. Is this ok, or a trick, or a crime against humanity?
He is dying and has lost most of his dignity to his disease.
Give him a fucking real beer!
God, yes. After he’s gone, do you want to think “Well, maybe he lived 3 seconds longer because we stiffed him!”, or do you want to think “Well, at least we gave him his last real beer.”
I say give him a real beer, too.*
But if he doesn’t know the difference, what’s the difference? I assure you I’d have to be pretty far gone to not be able to tell. NA beer is horrible!
*Hell, give him heroin if he wants it. He’s dying, fer crissakes!
Check with doctors to ensure you won’t murder him by giving him beer - but yeah I’d totally give him the real thing.
Having said that, there are some excellent non alcoholic beers out there. I’d much much rather have this than some crappy mass produced lager or pilsner.
Not if you give him the right stuff, e.g. Bavaria - this stuff is actually delicious and if it werent’ for the calories I would replace water with it.
He’s almost certainly on some strong opiate. Over on this side of the pond, we do use heroin in this kind of setting, certainly any decent doctor would prescribe it if you knew them and spoke to them in the right way in these circumstances.
If I were that old man I’d come back to haunt your sorry ass. (Not the OP but who ever was dumb enough to do that to me. :D)
Interestingly, you can make people act drunk by telling them you were giving them alcohol when you weren’t.
Most people can’t even tell the difference between red wine and white wine with the right colouring.
Basically, flavour is hugely subjective and can easily be manipulated. And you have to lie to the demented all the time so that particular ethical issue ain’t one in this case.
I do wonder, however, whether these psychological alcohol “placebo” effects are magnified or diminished when the taster is ga-ga.
Perhaps. Just don’t give me crappy heroin.
I used to sneak cigarettes to a family friend who was dying of incurable lung cancer. Obviously a lifetime of smoking had led to the cancer, but his wife was a raging bitch and wouldn’t let him enjoy his last few months.
So yeah. Give him a beer if he wants it.
Seriously - the situation in the OP is a lighthearted Irish ghost story waiting to happen.