Gewirth’s Theory of Agency Rights

Moral philosophy is essential to conceptualising decisional competence in two ways. First, the substance of the particular moral theory to which one is committed determines how one chooses to understand the value of a judgment of decisional competence or incompetence. Second, to echo Jeffrie Murphy’s observation in the introduction to this book, how one chooses to err in cases of doubtful competence – in favour of preserving decisional competence for as long as possible, or making a judgment of decisional incompetence at the earliest opportunity — is guided by the importance one’s chosen moral theory attaches to maximising or minimising prospects for self-determination.