Treating Disabled Adults as Children

Abstract

Adam Cureton points out that the intuitively plausible claim that it is disrespectful to treat mentally competent adults as if they were children gives rise to a puzzle, within a Kantian framework. It seems possible to fulfill basic Kantian duties of respect toward adults with disabilities (respecting their basic rights, for example, and recognizing their intrinsic worth), while still treating them like children. So how is it disrespectful to offer unwanted paternalistic assistance to a disabled person, or to speak to her condescendingly, if one is otherwise treating her as an end in herself? Cureton answers that Kant not only describes duties of respect toward rational beings in general, but also says that specific forms of respectful treatment are appropriate for particular people because of their situation or station. Cureton proposes that treating disabled adults like children typically involves miscategorizing their “station” of being competent adult decision makers.