TY - JOUR T1 - Significance of past statements: speech act theory JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 570 LP - 572 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2012-100911 VL - 39 IS - 9 AU - Joanne Gordon Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/9/570.abstract N2 - In W v M, a judge concluded that M's past statements should not be given weight in a best interests assessment. Several commentators in the ethics literature have argued this approach ignored M's autonomy. In this short article I demonstrate how the basic tenets of speech act theory can be used to challenge the inherent assumption that past statements represent an individual's beliefs, choices or decisions. I conclude that speech act theory, as a conceptual tool, has a valuable contribution to make to this debate. ER -