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Mentally Incapacitated Adults and Decision-Making: A Psychological Perspective

The law commission is currently proposing new legislation to protect the rights of mentally incapacitated adults. This paper describes, briefly, the proposed legislation. The author notes that the proposed legislation relies on categories established for the purposes of the Mental Health Act, 1983, which is itself under revision, and that these categories fail to capture the full range of cases to which the proposed legislation is intended to apply. The author suggests the use of more established international classification schemes which may be more readily understood across the European Community. Further, the author draws attention to developments in psychological theory and methodology, and urges the adoption of scientific methods in the assessment of cognitive incapacity, and in the more general application of the proposed legislation.