A spark of humanity flickered in the courts today as they lifted a cruel, ill-thought through and counter productive restriction on the lives of the mentally disabled. Like so many other cruelties, it flowed from the best of intentions.
Rosa Monckton and Dominic Lawson, and two other families of children with mental disabilities had challenged the provisions of the Mental Capacity Act that made it too hard for them and many other parents to protect their sons and daughters.
Their adult children were incapable of taking major decisions for themselves. The law as it stood, however, made it exceptionally difficult for patents to act as guardians, and take decisions for them. Or rather it wasn’t the law that stood in the way, but a code of practice, an anonymous civil servant had added to the 2005 Act, which stated that parents should retain control over the lives of adult children only ‘in the most difficult cases.’.
Writing about the case before the judgement, I said
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