Abstract

Within the western health-care context autonomyis a central value. Still, as it is used withinthis context it is far from clear what we areactually talking about. In this article theauthor outlines four different uses or aspectsof autonomy: self-determination, freedom,desire-fulfilment and independence. Oneimportant conclusion will be that in order tobe able to respect autonomy in a way thatactually brings value to the patient’s life weneed to clearly assess what aspect of autonomythe patient values and for what reason it isvalued by the patient.