ABSTRACT

The act of identification may involve little more than recognising that someone else is a human being and that any human being would wish to be treated in some ways and not in others. The connection between individuality and identification respect may seem secure: how someone conceives herself is a feature of who she is, including perceptions of hers that are mistaken. Bagnoli argues that loving attention can be included in an account of respect, and Dillon argues both that identification is a component of care respect and that care respect meets the universalizability requirement. For people who are not able to express their own preferences, there is the option of using a surrogate, or a guardian, an option that has been explored with a view to giving profoundly disabled people a say in decisions that affect their lives.