 Assumptions about disability and well-being also play a significant role in judging the reasonableness of requests by competent adults to end, or not receive, life sustaining treatment. Many jurisdictions recognize the right of such individuals to make this decision for themselves, but disability advocates remain concerned that their decisions are more likely to be considered reasonable, and respected, if they are made in response to severe, permanent disabilities. Thus, in the influential case of Elizabeth Bouvia, the court allowed a fully competent, severely disabled, women to refuse the medical support that could have prolonged her life indefinitely. Critics of the decision maintained that both Bouvia and the court were unduly swayed by the perceived indignity of her physical dependence, and by their difficulty in seeing how life could go very well with a severe disability (Asch 2005; Gill 1992; Longmore 1987).