Shift decisions for people who need help judging from others deciding for them to the person deciding with support
Steps to make it happen
- The change covers adults who find it hard to decide because of illness, disability, or old age.
- A person picks someone they trust as a supporter and registers that choice with a public office.
- The supporter explains the choices in ways the person can understand, such as with pictures or short words.
- The person makes the final decision, and the supporter never decides for them.
- Banks and hospitals accept what the person decides together with the supporter.
- Outside people check at set times that a supporter is not simply bossing the person around.
- Only when the person's wishes truly cannot be known does someone decide for them, and only for a limited time.
- With help, it becomes normal for people to decide things about their own lives.
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The proposal in detail
This proposal is about adults who need help with judgment because of intellectual disability, dementia, mental illness, brain injury, and the like. It would change decisions about daily life, such as managing money, where to live, medical treatment, and contracts, from a system where others decide everything for the person (such as guardianship) to one where the person decides for themselves with support. The person chooses one or more supporters from family, friends, or peers with similar experiences, and registers them at a public office. If there is no one close to rely on, a trained public supporter can be requested free of charge. A supporter's duties are to put information into a form the person can understand, to listen to the person's thoughts, and to keep a record of how the decision was reached. Supporters are forbidden from gaining anything from the person's decisions, and when interests conflict, another supporter takes over. The person can change or remove supporters at any time. Banks, hospitals, government offices, and similar bodies would be required to treat decisions made with support as valid and to prepare easy-to-understand explanatory materials. As an exception, only when the person's will or preferences truly cannot be read despite every reasonable effort, or in urgent, life-threatening situations, an independent review body may decide on the person's behalf, judging the choice most like the person from their past words and actions. Its scope and duration are limited, and it is reviewed regularly. Existing systems in which others decide for a person would be reviewed one person at a time and moved toward the support model.
BenefitsIt protects the person's dignity and can raise satisfaction with life
The biggest benefit is that people who need help with judgment can remain the main characters of their own lives. People are more likely to accept a home or a treatment they chose themselves, and feelings of low mood and distrust of those around them are likely to ease. Making decisions again and again may also help keep or even build up the person's own ability to judge. Also, because the way each decision was made is recorded and the person can change supporters at any time, it becomes easier to prevent the misuse of money and the ignoring of the person's wishes that tend to happen when one representative holds everything for a long time. For families, the weight of carrying all the responsibility alone gets lighter, and it becomes easier to keep an equal relationship with the person. When hospitals and banks prepare clear explanations, it helps build a society that is easier to use not only for disabled people but also for older people, people from abroad, and anyone who finds explanations hard. The idea of not drawing a line between people by ability, and of everyone being able to decide with support, becomes a useful foundation for a world that is aging.
DrawbacksVulnerable people may not be fully protected from danger
What opponents worry about most is that the power to protect the person from harm gets weaker. If a decision looks like the person's own, it becomes hard to see through and stop it even when a fraudster or someone close has actually talked the person into it. Unfavorable contracts that could have been canceled under a representative system may remain valid as the person's own decisions. For people with severe dementia or similar conditions whose wishes are extremely hard to read, some criticize that guessing the "most like the person" choice is in the end just calling the judgment of the people around them the person's will. There is also a risk that it becomes unclear who is responsible when the result is bad, and that hospitals and banks, afraid of that responsibility, become too cautious about transactions and treatment, which makes it harder for the person to get the services they need. Training enough supporters and continuing regular checks takes people and money, and in areas with few resources the system could end up existing only on paper. Some family members feel strong anxiety about being put in a position where, out of a wish to protect, they can only watch the person make a risky choice.
Learn the background
In many societies around the world, when a person is judged not to have enough ability to decide, a representative chosen by a court or similar body has been used to decide about their property and daily life. This system is meant to protect the person, but once it is applied, the person can lose the standing to decide in a wide range of matters, from contracts and marriage to where to live and, in some places, even voting. Yet decision-making ability is not a matter of having it or not having it. Many people who find complicated contracts hard can still say clearly where they want to live and who they want to spend time with. An international human rights agreement on the rights of disabled people also now requires that people not be stripped of their legal power to decide because of disability, and that the support needed for decisions be provided. In addition, as societies age, the number of people living with dementia keeps growing worldwide. Misuse of money by representatives is also a problem in many places, and it has become known that a system meant to protect can itself harm a person's dignity and safety.
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This proposal was written in Japanese by AI (claude-opus-5-5, policy version 2026-10-15d) and translated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5). Nobody has checked the facts. Read the original (日本語) How the AI writes