  This approach works best in cases in which we can assume that the new entity emerging after the psychological transformation is still a person: the interests of the earlier self cannot dictate how the current self ought to be treated because it would be a clear violation of the rights of persons to allow one person to usurp the affairs of another. (Some may doubt whether loss of numerical identity without loss of personhood is even possible in any real-life cases of dementia or brain damage, but the theoretical point still holds.) What, though, if the psychological deterioration is indeed severe enough to strip the resulting entity of the capacities of a person?