Dear Abby: Why would you side with the woman who installed a secret camera?

"I disagree with your response to Dutiful Daughter in Alabama, who put a camera in her 80-year-old mom's den in case of a fall and overheard Mom make negative comments about her. Installing a camera in someone's home without their consent is disgusting and wrong, legally and morally. The elderly, in addition to the rest of the population, have a right to privacy in their own homes."

"If Dutiful Daughter was really concerned about her mother falling, she should have considered a medical alert device, which would have notified family and summoned medical help the moment she fell. This is the safer, legal and common-sense solution. How would she know if her mother fell in another room of the house? It sounds like Dutiful had other undisclosed reasons for installing a camera. Why did she listen to a conversation that was clearly private?"

"My husband developed an addiction to slot machines, but I didn't realize it. Abby, he gambled away every single asset we had accumulated during our 58 years of marriage somewhere around $600,000! I found out after he asked his grown children for grocery money. We are now bankrupt and must rely on our son, who offered to bail us out if he could be the trustee of our land, home, everything."

Installing a camera in an elderly person's home without their consent is legally and morally wrong and violates their right to privacy. A medical alert device is a safer, legal alternative to monitor falls and summon help. Secret surveillance can misinterpret private conversations and suggests undisclosed motives. A spouse's gambling addiction can exhaust family assets and cause bankruptcy, exemplified by the loss of about $600,000 accumulated over 58 years of marriage. Losing financial autonomy can force dependence on a controlling family member who takes pensions and issues a restrictive allowance. The resulting restrictions and loss of independence can cause profound, long-term depression and hopelessness.

Read at www.mercurynews.com