Autonomy

What is autonomy?

Autonomy and privacy are related but distinct. Autonomy grants you the right to exert privacy but it also allows you to do public things without hinderence.

<i>Godbout</i> v. <i>Longueuil (City)</i> [1997] 3 S.C.R. 844

On Halloween Day 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada made a ruling about where a municipal worker could choose to live. In doing so, the minority of the court made statements about the way individuals relate to the state that had not been stated before. LaForest characterized the nature of the case at the outset of his part of the ruling for the minority in the following sentence at paragraph 15:

The central issue raised in this appeal is whether the choice of where to establish one's home falls within that narrow sphere of personal decision-making deserving of the law's protection and whether, even if it does, other important considerations might nevertheless take precedence over it.

<i>Blencoe</i> v. <i>British Columbia (Human Rights Commission)</i> [2000] 2 S.C.R. 307

Three years after Godbout, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada made reference to the case and elaborated the meaning of the sphere of liberty.

<i>Starson v. Swayze</i> 2003 SCC 32.

In this June 2003 ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada, the desire of a brilliant scientist who suffered from schizophrenia to stay off his medications was upheld.