Clinical Ethics Roundtable: Supported decision-making and capacity assessment, 24 Feb 2026
Please join clinical and academic colleagues online for the first Clinical Ethics Roundtable session for 2026, "Supported decision-making and capacity assessment promote patient autonomy in modern medicine", to be held Tuesday 24 February 2026, 7pm-8.30pm.
Guest speaker: Professor Jochen Vollmann, Director of the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr−University Bochum, Germany.
Discussant: Professor Jackie Leach Scully, Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Disability Innovation Institute, University of NSW
Convenor/facilitator: Dr Linda Sheahan, Director, SESLHD Clinical Ethics Service
Abstract: It is widely accepted among medical ethicists that competence is a necessary condition for informed consent. In this view, if a patient is incompetent to make a particular treatment decision, the decision must be based on an advance directive or made by a substitute decision-maker on behalf of the patient. We call this the competence model.
According to a recent report of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) presents a wholesale rejection of the competence model.
In my presentation I explicate adverse consequences of CRPD article 12 for persons with mental disabilities and show that functional model of competence is not discriminatory. As an alternative way forward, I propose a model combining the strengths of the competence model and supported decision-making.
Contact SESLHD-clinicalethics@health.nsw.gov.au for more information about this event. For more information about member clinical ethics events visit https://www.clinicalethicssociety.org/clinical-ethics-events
Roundtable is supported by the Clinical Ethics Society of Australasia.
Suggested readings
Matthé Scholten, Jakov Gather, Jochen Vollmann. 2021. Equality in the Informed Consent Process: Competence to Consent, Substitute Decision-Making, and Discrimination of Persons with Mental Disorders. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 46(1), 108–136. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhaa030
Matthé Scholten, Esther Braun, Jakov Gather, and Jochen Vollmann. 2021. Combining Supported Decision-Making with Competence Assessment: A Way to Protect Persons with Impaired Decision-Making Capacity against Undue Influence.” The American Journal of Bioethics 21(11): 45–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2021.1980133
