On the autonomy turf. Assessing the value of autonomy to patients

Abstract

Within the western health-care context autonomy is a central value. Still, as it is used within this context it is far from clear what we are actually talking about. In this article the author outlines four different uses or aspects of autonomy: self-determination, freedom, desire-fulfilment and independence. One important conclusion will be that in order to be able to respect autonomy in a way that actually brings value to the patient's life we need to clearly assess what aspect of autonomy the patient values and for what reason it is valued by the patient.