If you look at this from the perspective of a German judge, what you’re seeing on this image is a restriction of liberty that requires a judicial review. Restriction? Where?

The table in front of Pádraig’s stomach, the one his arms are resting on. To be exact, you wouldn’t need that judicial review and permission given by a judge in the home, but you would certainly need it if the table was used in an institution.

When I mentioned to the judge that doctors in Ireland can medicate persons who don’t have the capacity to decide for themselves and on their own without any kind of permission given by relatives (or other legally appointed guardians), that, in fact, they can decide what will happen to these persons without even having to disclose this to the family or any other appointed person or guardian, that judge was speechless and said that this was a very dangerous if it really was allowed.

Now, Germans might be just that little bit more sensitive to this issue because of their history, but history is there to learn from to try and not to repeat the fatal mistakes of the past. It’s easy to find out why and how the Nazis killed those who they considered to be not more than just a burden on society.

Pádraig went food shopping this afternoon. We wondered whether it would be worth the hassle to put on his jacket, to get him out of the house, into the car and into the supermarket. Just to go shopping. Turned out it was: he did picked food for his dinner, for his breakfast and for his sweet tooth. He could pick between options. And you wouldn’t believe what an enormous difference that little tiny bit of empowerment and self-determination.

No restrictions!