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For many years, other people made decisions for those with intellectual disabilities and, all too often, they did this without considering why they were doing so. However, the rise of the normalisation and rights movements in intellectual disabilities, and the recent UN convention, has meant that people with intellectual disabilities are increasingly recognised as having the right to make their own decisions wherever possible. In the UK, this change in thinking highlighted the gap in the law for substitute decision-making, since this had no real basis in law prior to 2000. Recently both Scotland and England & Wales have clarified the law in this regard, with the Mental Incapacity (Scotland) Act and the Mental Capacity Act (England & Wales). Other European countries, such as Ireland, are in the process of passing similar legislation.
Glynis Murphy will review how this legislation is working in England, Wales and Scotland and will consider the advantages and disadvantages of this and other approaches to decision-making.
Glynis Murphy
Professor of Clinical Psychology and Learning Disabilities, Tizard Centre, University of Kent, UK.
Professor Glynis Murphy is a chartered clinical and forensic psychologist, President of the International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) and Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She is co-editor of Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities and now works at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent. For many years, she has had research interests in challenging behaviour, abuse, mental capacity, forensic issues and the law in intellectual disabilities, and she has published almost 100 book chapters and journal articles on these topics. |
