ABSTRACT
For those of us who live in Western liberal democratic societies, free choice is something that we take for granted. We are able to choose where we live, who our friends are, where we work, and what our priorities are in life. Choice is, of course, never entirely without limits. Both the law and social morality limit the exercise of choices that may be harmful to others. Furthermore, our choices over where we work may be limited by the realities of the labour market and many of our choices and opportunities may be confined by socially constructed realities of class, gender, race and disability. Yet even while we acknowledge these limits, the rhetoric of choice and autonomy is a strong and central feature of contemporary society. Choice is, it seems, an inbuilt feature of our lives.
