« Perceived individual freedom and collectively provided care”

International audienceBeing a free person creates a number of expectations when it comes to evaluating the conduct of other people toward the person. However, the extent and modalities of the expected "respect" are under scrutiny and arguments in the field always involve the nature of freedom and the associated normative claims. The connections between the norms of collective care and individual perceptions of one's freedom of choice must be investigated with a view to characterizing this tension between basic objectives. In care-providing institutional settings-such as hospitals or medically equipped retirement houses, and in medically equipped prisons-organizational choices are dependent on information about functionings, abilities, and agency status. Subjective views of one's domain of freedom and subjective interpretations of prudential rules, provided they are not treated as absolute claims, should be harmonized somehow. Against the background of heightened attention paid to patients' rights and prerogatives, chronic diseases and functional impairments call for a second look at subjective perceptions of freedom status