Vers un droit à l’autonomie des personnes vivant avec la maladie d’Alzheimer?

Baudoin, ME; Kang-Riou, N

Abstract

Towards a right to autonomy for people living with dementia?

One of the key challenges of the 21st century is to protect the autonomy of an ageing population, with a growing proportion living with cognitive impairments. However, this is an arduous task faced with important issues. The first one is to agree as to what autonomy means, in a context in which international treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights or the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities take different approaches. For the European Court of Human Rights, it is not necessary to choose between autonomy and protection of the person against oneself; on the contrary for the Committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, the priority has to be the maximum preservation of autonomous decision-making even to the point of overlooking the necessary protection.

The second hurdle follows: how to conform to these international human rights norms which diverge in their understanding of the relationship of the individual and the community? Thus this is not an easy task for states, like the UK, which have adopted recent legislation meant to increase the role of the will and preferences of individuals at every stage of their lives, whilst maintaining a minimum level of protection. In England, the key instrument is the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which is meant to be "dementia-friendly" but still faces many implementation issues.

Citation

Baudoin, M., & Kang-Riou, N. (2017). Vers un droit à l’autonomie des personnes vivant avec la maladie d’Alzheimer?. Gérontologie et société, 39(154), 45-59

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 28, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 13, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 1, 2018
• Journal: Gérontologie et société
• Print ISSN: 0151-0193
• Electronic ISSN: 2101-0218
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 154
• Pages: 45-59
• Publisher URL: http://www.statistiques-recherches.cnav.fr/gerontologie-et-societe.html