Volume 15, 2018
Human Rights
Rodolfo Vázquez
Pages 101-105
Human Rights: Deflation or Inflation?
A restrictive interpretation of the principle of autonomy in terms of “personhood” or “normative agency” restrains the extension of human rights (deflation) and ends up being counterintuitive when accounting for people with a severely handicapped biopsychic capacity, yet who are still susceptible to the recognition of their rights. The normative agency criterion is insufficient so the “needs” criterion that expands the breadth of human rights (inflation) is proposed as a more radical approach in that the proper valuation of autonomy entails the assessment of the conditions necessary for its full realization.