ABSTRACT
Two distinct ways of conceptualising ‘disability’ have tended to dominate literature on this topic, namely, the ‘medical’ and the ‘social’ models of disability. The medical model is associated with the conviction that disability is a direct consequence of physical or mental pathology. Exponents of the social model, on the other hand, hold that disability is a consequence of the failure of society to accommodate the needs of people with physical and mental differences (impairments). It is important to begin our ethico-legal examination of life-and-death decision-making by evaluating these disparate approaches to disability. This is necessary because the way disability is understood influences the issues that must be addressed in respect of disabled lives and the way(s) in which it is thought most appropriate to resolve them.
