Dowrking - the importance of critical interests Advance
directives and personhood The evidentiary vs. the integrity view
of autonomy In “Life’s Dominion: an argument about abortion,
euthanasia and individual freedom”, Dworkin (1994) considers the
right of people lacking capacity to autonomy. He acknowledges
that competent individuals have the right to make decisions
which might not necessarily seem logical, wise or in their best
interests but that adults with incapacity do not have this same
right. Dworkin puts forward the evidentiary view as a possible
explanation, which basically supposes that people do in fact
know what is in their best interests, and that consequently,
other people should not interfere. In the case of people with
incapacity, it would be presumed that they do not know what is
in their best interests but that other people, for example
specialists like doctors, do. However, he acknowledges that this
is clearly not the case, as competent adults regularly and
freely make decisions in full know