Harmful Choices, the Case of C, and Decision-Making Competence

In this paper, we make the case that a person who is considering or has already made a decision that appears seriously harmful to that person should in some cases be judged incapable of making that decision because of the harmfulness of the decision. We focus on the English case of C of 2015. C refused life-saving dialysis. The hospital wanted her declared incompetent to make this decision under the English Mental Capacity Act of 2005. The Judge argued that the consequences for a person's welfare of their decision are irrelevant to the assessment of competence, a position labeled "internalism." This aligns with an assessment of decision-making competence on a strictly cognitivist model. However, internalism misrepresents decision-making. The outcomes of decision-making processes should be part and parcel of judgments of decision-making competence, and in some cases are necessary for any judgment of incompetence to be made.

Errataetall:

CommentIn: Am J Bioeth. 2022 Oct;22(10):73-75. - PMID 36170071

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:22

Enthalten in:

The American journal of bioethics : AJOB - 22(2022), 10 vom: 29. Okt., Seite 38-50

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Pickering, Neil [VerfasserIn]
Newton-Howes, GIles [VerfasserIn]
Young, Greg [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Decision making
Journal Article
Law
Medicine
Philosophy
Professional-patient relationship

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 30.09.2022

Date Revised 13.10.2022

published: Print-Electronic

CommentIn: Am J Bioeth. 2022 Oct;22(10):73-75. - PMID 36170071

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1080/15265161.2021.1941422

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM328012971