Linda Barclay

1 Introduction Mental health inpatient units are settings where consumers are admitted, either voluntarily or involuntarily, for psychiatric assessment and treatment of acute mental illness. The World Health Organization has declared it a human right that all patients in the world feel safe when accessing mental health treatment and has published guidelines for health services to support these rights (World Health Organization 2019).

Disability raises a host of moral concerns - issues around justice, human rights, and what we owe to each other in a compassionate society. But philosophers have been slow to address disability, and what philosophical literature there is often comes up short in the face of disability's highly complex nature and the ethical challenges it poses. This week: identity politics, distributive justice and the moral minefield that we enter when we try to define disability.