Reconsidering The Britney Spears Case – Requires Reconsidering How Society Thinks About Decision-Making Capacity
Elyn Saks, University of Southern California
Britney Spears’ impassioned remarks in court have raised many questions about conservator-ships, including when they’re necessary and whether they effectively protect someone’s best interests.
When one loses the capacity to make decisions for oneself the court appoints a guardian, or conservator, to make those decisions. Appointing someone to make decisions about personal and financial matters on another’s behalf has been part of civil society since the ancient Greeks. Today, all jurisdictions in the U.S. have conservator-ship laws to protect people who lack the ability to make their own decisions.
As a distinguished professor of law at the University of Southern California, and as a person who was diagnosed over four decades ago with chronic...