Not all cultural traditions have the same conception of personhood. In Confucianism, self-individuation takes place only through engagement with others in the context of one’s social roles and relationships.

Physicians have an obligation to consider a patient’s quality of life when making treatment decisions and should consider giving patients the options of withholding or withdrawing aggressive treatment if that treatment will not restore the kind of life the patient finds meaningful.

A judicious approach to autism would be to replace a “disability” or “illness” paradigm with a “diversity” perspective that takes into account both strengths and weaknesses and the idea that variation can be positive in and of itself.

Arts participation can counterbalance the social stigma of Alzheimer’s disease by fostering the autonomy and creativity of those with the diagnosis.

Authentic partnerships with people with dementia motivate full social participation and resist fatalism around experiences of illness.

Defining typical appearance as a goal of health service provision is harmful and unnecessary for traits that are stigmatized but neither harmful nor distressing.

Facial transplantation must establish approaches to assessing QoL in candidates and recipients that use meaningful outcomes.