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Construction of Socio-Legal Dignity for Old Persons: Narrative Perspectives from Taiwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2021

Amy Huey-Ling Shee
Amy Huey-Ling Shee*
Affiliation:
1Professor of Law, Director of Taiwan Legal Information Institute, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, 621301, Taiwan 2Trustee, Asian Law and Society Association
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Contemporary laws have been responding to the challenges of ageing societies. Elder people have gradually become a special, if not disadvantaged, social group to be protected, cared for, and even censored by law in the name of protection. The UN has long discussed a Convention to protect the distinctive human rights of old persons while invoking the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to protect the dignity of senior citizens. Under national laws, adult-guardianship, welfare, and medical laws are strengthened in the name of better elder care, yet forcing old people to give up the freedom and autonomy that they have enjoyed throughout adulthood. This paper thus argues for the socio-legal construction of “elderhood” to respond to the special needs of senior citizens to maintain individual dignity. By observing narrative accounts of elders in care, socio-legal images of Taiwan elderhood may be presented for analyses. A proposal is then made to suggest the socio-legal construction of the individual dignity of elder people.

Keywords

dignityautonomyadult guardianshipCRPDhuman right
Type
Dignity in East Asian Law and Society
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 168 - 180
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society

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