ABSTRACT
The contextual setting of the ethics of driving often seems to neglect the simple principles of care, competence and communication: ‘care’ in the sense of the appropriate focus of the practitioner-patient interaction, ‘competence’ in the sense of knowing not only the literature of assessment and remediation but also the extent of societal ageism, and ‘communication’ in the sense of understanding the skills needed to move from a primary focus on health gain to one of palliation.3 The primary ethos still appears to be ‘We are bringing you to Dr O’Neill so that he can stop your driving’ rather than ‘We are bringing you to Dr O’Neill to maximise your changes of maintaining your mobility and transportation. Of course, at some stage you may no longer be able to drive, and we may need to consider other options in the future’. The literature in this area is a gloomy testament to the underdeveloped nature of the debate. The vast majority of the papers on MEDLINE still focus on who should not drive, rather than considering the health implications of inadequate access to transport.
