People with Intellectual Disability and the Relational Self: Redrawing the Moral Boundaries of Personal Autonomy

Accounts of autonomy within liberal theory seek to promote individual self-determination and the dignity of all persons, but have also been used to demarcate the boundaries of personhood and exclude people with intellectual disability. Critically engaging with how theories and policies that promote autonomy position people with intellectual disability can illuminate the shortcomings of individualistic approaches to autonomy and extend the accounts of relational autonomy developed by feminist theorists. Drawing on feminist conceptions of the relational self, I show that the capacity to exercise personal autonomy is dependent upon supportive relationships and enabling environments, for people with intellectual disability and for all persons. While this dependency applies to all persons, the particular challenges faced by people with intellectual disability in exercising autonomy requires us to expand the moral boundaries of our conceptions of personal autonomy. To this end, the thesis critically revises the concepts of self-representation and moral responsibility that are central to standard models of personal autonomy, by 1) exploring ethical modes of speaking with and for marginalised persons and groups, and 2) developing a political conception of care that understands the enablement of autonomy as a collective, social responsibility. It also interrogates current disability advocacy and disability policy, which in emphasising the centrality of the personal autonomy of people with disability, face the task of translating and operationalising a highly contested and emergent concept. Woven between the chapters of this thesis are short pieces of relational narrative that explore my personal positioning and relationship with my younger sister who has intellectual disability. These narratives seek to evoke the ongoing relational negotiation and renegotiation of dependency, interdependency, and individuality through which personal agency and autonomy emerge, a dynamic that needs to be supported by wider social actors and institutions in order to enable people with intellectual disability to flourish as individuals