wehmeyer doctrine of self determination

SELF DETERMINATION

Michael Wehmeyer defines Self-Determination as “acting as the primary causal agent in one’s life and making choices and decisions regarding one’s quality of life free from undue external influence or interference.” This is an extension from natural law theory, and a repudiation of the nanny welfare state. Although Wehmeyer developed this more for individuals with disabilities and with implicit positive rights, I believe it to be a valid statement for all people more inline with the negative rights that Lock and Hume believed in. As Hayek points out, that once the state gets involved in governing peoples lives, ultimately self efficacy is removed from the individual to be replaced by the state, no matter how sincere the original intentions were. The state ultimately, as an entity is removed from negative consequences of ill conceived social policy, and often makes matters worse by increasing program X even after it has been proven ineffective. The mis-logic of program X failing and proposals of "we need more of program X to meet our progressive goals" should be self evident. It is illegitimate to just take (steal) the funding from the rest of society as if it is a fundamental positive right. As a matter of practice, it would be legitimate for advocates to inform the public to vote to give stipends to individuals with disabilities, to use or misuse as they see fit, to meet basic needs and recreation, with support staff of their choosing. Persuasion is always better than coercion - unless one wants to travel down the road to serfdom.