Självbestämmandets gränser : När brukarens självbestämmanderätt krockar med personalens diskrimineringsskydd

Sammanfattning: The inspiration for this essay started with my own experience of an issue within personal assistance. I witnessed a situation where a user expressed a reluctance to receive support from personal assistants with another ethnicity. There is something called “self-determination” which is a statutory right who follows from the legal act named Lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade (LSS). Personal assistance is one of many supports people with disabilities can be entitled to within the rights of LSS and when it comes to personal assistance especially, the user’s right to self-determination is significant. According to the right of self-determination the user should be given considerable influence when the employer hires the personal assistant. The problematic aspects of this is when the user require someone, or express an aversion of someone, with a certain ethnicity. The self-determination can therefore collide with another strong law which is the discrimination act (Diskrimineringslagen, DL). Since special treatment because of ethnicity is forbidden according to DL, the main question this essay aims to investigate is how to interpret these two legislations when they collide in this type of situation. Different interpretations cause employers to act differently which leads to different opportunities for assistants and users depending on the municipality they live in, therefore it is an important question which needs to be investigated.