Tag: legal capacity

Equal Legal Capacity or ‘Supported Decision-Making’?

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At a recent conference on legal capacity, I was struck by the failure of another invited expert to adhere to the paradigm of supported decision-making as articulated by the CRPD Committee. We still need to work to ensure that this paradigm is well understood and appreciated, despite the progress made in national reforms.

Q&A: Can My Child’s Psychiatric Diagnosis Be Voided?

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My son recently had a first psychotic episode due to excessive marijuana use and a head injury. He is currently in legal trouble for hitting a staffer while involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. Doctors now say he shows no sign of mental illness. He wants to get the charges dropped and go to rehab. Is there any way to have a psychiatric diagnosis voided?

Peruvian Legal Capacity Reform – Celebration and Analysis

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Peru has moved closer to full compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities than any other country in the world. Here I analyze the Peruvian reform as it pertains to legal capacity and the right to be free from disability-based detention and forced medical interventions.

Human Right to Health – More than Economic Justice

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Something is lost, a great deal is lost, when we give up an independent advocacy platform about our own bodies and subsume our needs and rights into what medical professionals are motivated to fight for on our behalf.

Psychosocial Disability and Legal Capacity: Don’t Bargain with Human Rights

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For persons with psychosocial disabilities, one of the most fundamental rights laid out in the CRPD is the right to equal recognition before the law and legal capacity (Article 12). Our latest Position Paper focuses on Article 12 of the CRPD.

Decision-Making and Moral Injury

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Oppression and abuse have effects on a person's sense of self and experience of agency, or lack thereof; on one's ability to know one's self in the world as actor, and not only acted-upon. Some (and maybe all) aspects of oppression and abuse specifically entail moral injury and violation of moral integrity. This is particularly interesting to explore because it links psychological trauma as a result of oppression and abuse with an aspect of decision-making difficulty that some of us experience as psychiatrically-labeled people. There is something to be gained by reclaiming ownership of the truths of our own lives, and ownership over making decisions about where to take the discussion: in philosophy, psychology, law, politics, art or anywhere else.