IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jhudca/v26y2025i2p316-325.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agency, the Capability Approach, and the ICF at the End-of-Life

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher A. Riddle

Abstract

Although the aims of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) are primarily classificatory in nature, its utilisation as a social policy tool, in social security planning, compensation systems and policy design and implementation, is not uncommon. In this paper, I argue that the ICF fails to take into consideration the value of agency in the lives of people with disabilities and if it is intended to inform or create policy, the agency of people with disabilities must be given greater attention in our normative framework for social justice and equitable policy outcomes. I suggest that a respect for agency necessitates the supplementing of the ICF with the Capability Approach (CA) to permit individuals to plan and live a life (or die) according to their values. I suggest that many end-of-life options, such as the voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED), passive euthanasia, and medical aid in dying, result in a complete lack of functioning, but that respect for agency requires the granting of wishes to hasten death.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher A. Riddle, 2025. "Agency, the Capability Approach, and the ICF at the End-of-Life," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 316-325, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:26:y:2025:i:2:p:316-325
    DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2025.2479035
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19452829.2025.2479035
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/19452829.2025.2479035?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:26:y:2025:i:2:p:316-325. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJHD20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.