Abortion, Persuasion, and Emotion: Implications of Social Science Research on Emotions for Reading \u3ci\u3eCasey\u3c/i\u3e

Although abortion jurisprudence under Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey condones State efforts to persuade a woman to forego an abortion in favor of childbirth, the opinion’s “truthful and not misleading” language can be read more broadly than it traditionally has. Specifically, even a truthful message may mislead when it inappropriately takes advantage of emotional influence to bias an individual’s decision away from the decision that would be made in a non-emotional, fully informed state. Drawing on empirical research in the social sciences, I suggest that the sort of emotional information that many states now provide in their “informed consent” statutes can lead to such inappropriate emotional influence and thus should be examined more closely than heretofore. This broader reading, taking into account empirical research that gives a better idea of individual decisionmaking, suggests that states’ informed consent statutes have the potential to be an impermissible burden on the exercise of a woman’s autonomous decision-making about an abortion precisely because they bias a woman’s free choice, not inform it

Judicial Wisdom: An Introductory Empirical Account

For millennia, the notion of “wisdom” has been the purview of philosophers or religious scholars. Philosophers literally loved and sought wisdom; biblical scholars lionized King Solomon, wisest man of all.1 More recently, however, psychologists have begun to investigate the concept of wisdom empirically. Beginning in the mid-1970s and proceeding apace,2 social scientists have studied wisdom from a variety of perspectives, falling under two headings of implicit and explicit theories.3 IMPLICIT THEORIES OF WISDOM At least three different approaches have been taken to the development of implicit theories of wisdom. One thread of research, probably the most common, uses a three-step factor analysis approach: one sample of participants is asked to generate a list of traits or characteristics of wisdom generally or of a wise person. Another sample rates that list of traits on, for example, how typical each is of wisdom or of a wise person, and the resulting ratings are then factor analyzed to identify and articulate the underlying dimensions.

Supported Decision-Making: A Viable Alternative to Guardianship?

The law has traditionally responded to cognitive disability by authorizing surrogate decision-makers to make decisions on behalf of disabled individuals. However, supported decision-making, an alternative paradigm for addressing cognitive disability, is rapidly gaining political support. According to its proponents, supported decision-making empowers individuals with cognitive challenges by ensuring that they are the ultimate decision-maker but are provided support from one or more others, giving them the assistance they need to make decisions for themselves. This article describes supported decision-making and its normative appeal. It then provides a descriptive account of how supported decision-making works based on the empirical literature on supported decision-making as well as that on shared decision-making, a related model used in medical contexts. The article shows how employing supported decision-making in lieu of guardianship, or integrating it into the guardianship system, has the potential to promote the self-determination of persons with intellectual and cognitive disabilities consistent with international and national legal norms. However, we find that, despite much rhetoric touting its advantages, little is known about how supported decision-making processes operate or about the outcomes of those processes. Further research is necessary to design and develop effective supported decisionmaking systems. We therefore propose a series of research questions to help inform policy choices surrounding supported decision-making