A nursing home resident with dementia who no longer recognizes her husband of 50-plus
years becomes involved and intimate with a widower who lives at the same facility and also
has dementia. The woman’s husband and children are supportive of her new relationship-it
has enhanced her well-being. But the man’s daughter, who also is his guardian, insists that the
facility staff break up the relationship or she will sue and move him to another facility. The
daughter is adamant: Dad was devoutly religious, dedicated to the memory of his wife, and
would be horrified and ashamed if he knew that she had sanctioned an extra-marital relationship.
The facility staff plead his rights with the daughter, pointing to prior experience as
evidence that splitting up the couple could lead to depression, deterioration of their health, and
hasten their mortality.