Autonomy in disability from the perspective of the ethics of care

Abstract

In this article we propose a reflection on autonomy in the disability, as possibility to make decisions considering the diversity of situations that this process may involve. In the first instance, we address the distinction between decision autonomy and execution autonomy proposed by groups of people with disabilities that make up the Independent Living Movement. Below, we reflect on different perspectives on the human condition. These perspectives constitute the theoretical bases of different conceptions of the autonomy. On the one hand, the mechanistic perspective, focused on individualism and the self-sufficient individual. On the other hand, the perspective of the ethics of care, based on the interdependent dimension of all life. We conclude with the proposal of the concept of relational autonomy, contribution of investigations of complex thought and elaborations of feminist philosophy.  This notion allows us to conceive autonomy as the emergence of singularity, in relation to the linking plots of which the subjects are part.