individual autonomy
Freedom over oneself
Individual autonomy is the capacity to make decisions and govern one's own life according to personal values and reasoning, free from undue external control.
The concept appears in ethics, law, and political philosophy as a foundational principle: The policy respects individual autonomy while protecting public health.
Medical ethics treats individual autonomy as the basis for informed consent—patients decide what happens to their own bodies.
- libertyAbsence of unjust constraint
- personal freedomControl over one's life
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- self-ownershipExclusive bodily authority
- self-awarenessInsight into one's psyche
decision-making · own two feet · civil rights · moral agency · free will · human dignity · consent · anti-authoritarianism · patient rights · empowerment · standing alone · existentialism · privacy · personal boundaries · reproductive rights · rationality · self-regulation · freedom of speech
individual autonomystate control
Government-managed economy or society
authoritarianism · paternalism · social control · governmental control · centralized authority
individual autonomycoercion
Pressured compliance through threats
subjugation · enslavement · oppression · compulsion · domination
individual autonomydependence
State of needing another
subordination · submission · obedience · conformity · deference
individual, autonomy, autonomous, individuals, individuality, individualistic, indivisible, individualize, autonomously