Quotes About Autonomy

They ask only to be permitted, insofar as possible, to keep shaping the story of their life in the world—to make choices and sustain connections to others according to their own priorities. In modern society, we have come to assume that debility and dependence rule out such autonomy.

The amount of freedom you have in your life is not the measure of the worth of your life. Just as safety is an empty and even self-defeating goal to live for, so ultimately is autonomy.

We want autonomy for ourselves and safety for those we love." That remains the main problem and paradox for the frail. "Many of the things that we want for those we care about are things that we would adamantly oppose for ourselves because they would infringe upon our sense of self.

That remains the main problem and paradox for the frail. "Many of the things that we want for those we care about are things that we would adamantly oppose for ourselves because they would infringe upon our sense of self.

Yet—and this is the painful paradox—we have decided that they should be the ones who largely define how we live in our waning days.

Our concerns and desires may shift. But whatever happens, we want to retain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties.

All we ask is to be allowed to remain writers of our own story. That story is ever changing. Over the course of our lives, we may encounter unimaginable difficulties. Our concerns and desires may shift. But whatever happens, we want to retrain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties.

Oh thank God I can go myself to the bathroom," Makover told me. "You would think it's nothing. You're young. You'll understand when you're older, but the best thing in your life is when you can go yourself to the bathroom.

that I myself have said no.

And then a new question arises: If independence is what we live for, what do we do when it can no longer be sustained? In

They all believed that you didn't need to sacrifice your autonomy just because you needed help in your life.

individual autonomy hardly seems the ideal we should aim for.

Given a choice, people wriggle out, and those choices are not offered equally.

The philosophy is that you push the power of decision making out to the periphery and away from the center. You give people the room to adapt, based on their experience and expertise. All you ask is that they talk to one another and take responsibility. That is what works.

the real lesson is that under conditions of true complexity—where the knowledge required exceeds that of any individual and unpredictability reigns—efforts to dictate every step from the center will fail. People need room to act and adapt. Yet

They all believed that you didn't need to sacrifice your autonomy just because you needed help in your life. And I realized, in meeting these people, that they shared a very particular philosophical idea of what kind of autonomy mattered most in life.

My wife used to say I was a loner, but I'm not. I just like my time alone," he told me. So when the tour guide said that the Florence Center had single rooms, "I said, 'You must be kidding!'" The tour had only begun and already he was sold.

Home is the one place where your own priorities hold sway. At home, you decide how you spend your time, how you share your space, and how you manage your possessions.

And he let me go ahead.

The professionals and institutions we turn to should...not confine people's choices, in the name of safety, but to expand them, in the name of living a worthwhile life.

Little more than a decade ago, doctors made the decisions; patients did what they were told.

We are running up against the difficulty of maintaining a coherent philosophical distinction between giving people the right to stop external or artificial processes that prolong their lives and giving them the right to stop the natural, internal processes that do so

So the night before the operation he did an unusual thing: he discussed the treatment options with her and let her choose.

Most doctors, taking seriously the idea that patients should control their own fates, lay out the options and the risks involved.