GLOBAL AWARENESS 101 - Let your VOICE be heard and get involved. OUR future depends on it!
We can do the right thing to create positive change within ourselves and the world around us! I have created this blog with the intention of keeping you informed of news that is affecting humanity and nature throughout the world! There is no better time than the present to become a global participant and not just an innocent bystander. I have provided you with several websites to help empower yourself and a list of global organizations that you can choose from to make a difference.
Hi everybody HAPPY SUNDAY! I seriously hope all of you find time to take a much needed BREAK this weekend. Kick your feet up, watch a great movie, play a fun video game, get outside and ride your bike or roller skate, listen to great music and dance in your living room, etc. whatever it takes to put a GREAT BIG SMILE on your face and in your heart! Life is tooooo short to live it wrapped up in knots. Why are you going to let the enemy steal your joy? You do know that's what the enemy wants. That's the enemy's number one goal before completely eliminating their opposition. They want to turn us into The Borg who have no souls.
According to Google AI: The Borg do not have a unified soul as a collective, as their hive mind suppresses individual identity and spirituality.
Demons decay, destroy souls. That is their purpose. They want lifeless humans leading to depression and then death. That's why the enemy is banning everything that brings us joy. They even want to eliminate the sun because "climate change" bs. You don't believe me? Read this, Bill Gates backing plan to tackle climate change by blocking out the sun dated August 13, 2019. Here is another article, A Bill Gates venture aims to spray dust into the atmosphere to block the sun dated January 11, 2021. State funded fact checkers say this is false. But it's not false. And think about this for a moment... these same crazy people want to put us all on solar energy. How the hell is solar energy going to work for us human beings if these crazy people who want to eliminate us block out the sun? Everything living depends on the sun for its very existence.
SO take a deep breath and RELAX. You must keep your composure, the devil and his demonic minions feed on fear. Commie globalists are sadomasochists who get great pleasure in cruelty and torture. I am sending you so much love! :)
Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10) And Satan is the author of lies. Which we are seeing unfold all over the world with covid19 bs, climate change bs, war bs that the evil NWO globalist monsters created. The psychopaths use all these events to kill us off and steal tons of money from our US Treasury.
I found this GREAT video with Barbra singing live with Ray Charles. :D Yes, this is how I pump myself up when I need to and even when I don't... I blast her music and dance or perform in the middle of my living room. Nope, there is no shame here ONLY FUN FUN FUN! Besides, nobody is watching anyway and it makes me FEEL GOOD... so who cares. ;)
Shift your mood...💖 Have fun today doing whatever it is that makes you feel good.
As an aside, I do want to point out that I can't stand her politics. But I still love her, her voice, her personality, her acting, her beauty. We do have things in common too such as both of us being lover of the arts and animals. She believes in human rights, animal rights, and wildlife conservation just like I do. So there's that. Needless to say, I've been a huge fan of hers since my childhood and that hasn't changed because we have different political views. It's okay to not think the same. We are not clones.
Sweet Inspiration by Barbra Streisand
I need your sweet inspiration
I need you here on my mind
Every hour of the day
Without your sweet inspiration
The lonely hours of the night
Just don't go my way
Wanting you the way I do
I only want to be with you
And I would go to the ends of the earth
'Cause darling, to me that's what you're worth
I need your sweet inspiration
I need you here on my mind
Every hour of the day
Without your sweet inspiration
The lonely hours of the night
Just don't go my way
Oh, a woman in love needs sweet inspiration
And honey that's all I ask, you know
That's all I ask from you
I gotta have your sweet inspiration
You know there just ain't no tellin'
What a satisfied woman might do
Wanting you the way I do (sweet, sweet)
Only want to be with you (sweet, sweet)
Gonna follow where you lead (sweet, sweet)
Baby you're just what I need
Your sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet inspiration
And honey that's all I ask, you know
That's all I ask from you
I gotta have your sweet inspiration
You know there just ain't no telling
What a satisfied woman can do
NBCLA published March 21, 2026: Sexual assault investigation underway at La Mirada senior care facility. A man was charged with sex crimes after he was accused of sexually assaulting an elderly woman with dementia inside a La Mirada senior independent living facility, NBC Los Angeles confirmed Friday. Darsha Philips reports.
ABC7 published March 23, 2026: Man charged after assault of Alzheimer's patient caught on video at senior facility. A man has been arrested and charged after cameras captured him in the bedroom of an Alzheimer's patient at a La Mirada senior living facility. Now, the family is suing the facility.
FOX 11 Los Angeles published March 18, 2026: Senior living community volunteer accused of raping woman with dementia [WARNING: GRAPHIC] A Los Angeles County woman alleges that a volunteer at her mother’s senior living facility sexually assaulted her mother, who has dementia, with the incident captured on in-room cameras.
LA MIRADA, Calif. -- A 39-year-old man has been arrested and charged with rape after surveillance cameras captured him in the bedroom of a 61-year-old Alzheimer's patient at The Palms La Mirada Senior Living Facility, according to authorities and the victim's family.
Now, the family is suing the senior living facility.
Caregivers rushed to check on the woman after the disturbing footage showed a man removing his clothes inside her apartment. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrested Jonathan Michael Alvarado, who investigators say first came into contact with the victim while working as a volunteer musician contracted to perform for the residents.
The crime was discovered by the woman's daughter, Camyl Anderson, who monitors her mother's well-being through cameras she installed in the apartment. Anderson said her mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at 55 and has lived at the facility for several years.
"The day it happened, I was at work. I received more notifications than I usually do," Anderson said.
Anderson said she checked the camera footage in June of last year and was horrified by what she saw.
"Once I was able to get back to my office and see the video. I just saw a man sitting on her bed, bending over, tying his shoes, and then he was walking out, and she was just left on her bed, nude," she said.
She immediately called caregivers to check on her mother, then she contacted police.
"I couldn't believe it, honestly. And then I was angry, and then I just screamed, and then I cried," Anderson said.
The family's attorney, Dominique Westmoreland, says there is a lack of security at the facility.
"It's a violation of those who are at most vulnerable in our society, especially knowing that her mother had been diagnosed with dementia," Westmoreland said.
In a statement, The Palms La Mirada said, "The safety and well-being of our residents is our top priority. We are disturbed by these allegations and will fully cooperate with any criminal investigation."
Alvarado is charged with one felony count of rape and one felony count of elder abuse. The investigation is ongoing.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is urging anyone with information related to this case, or anyone who believes they may have been victimized by Alvarado, to come forward immediately. Individuals are encouraged to contact the Special Victims Bureau and ask for Sergeant Joe Ramos at (562) 946-7960.
CBS6 Albany published April 20, 2026: Families livid over alleged nursing home abuse. Surveillance video, police body camera footage, and state inspection records are raising questions about care and oversight at Eddy Village Green, a nursing home in Cohoes, as multiple families come forward with concerns about how residents are treated.
CBS6 Albany published April 28, 2026: How many nursing home incidents are going unreported? Following a CBS6 investigation into a Cohoes nursing home that revealed troubling video and state findings, a former employee of Eddy Village Green is coming forward, raising new questions about how allegations of abuse are handled inside the facility.
COHOES, N.Y. (WRGB) — CBS6 INVESTIGATES— Surveillance video, police body camera footage, and state inspection records are raising questions about care and oversight at Eddy Village Green, a nursing home in Cohoes, as multiple families come forward with concerns about how residents are treated.
Police body camera footage from February 9, 2026, shows an officer attempting to wake a staff member inside the facility just after 1 a.m., after a family member called authorities concerned that staff responsible for monitoring residents were asleep on the job.
While the facility declined an interview, leadership responded in a statement. Samantha Guilfoyle, executive director of Eddy Village Green Cohoes, said the facility “promptly conducted a thorough internal review and communicated directly with the family member who submitted the complaint. We also self-reported it to the New York State Department of Health. Our internal review did not identify any negative outcomes.”
When asked what factors led to that determination, the facility did not provide additional details.
In a separate case from February 2, 2025, surveillance video shows a 79-year-old resident, Sharon Wagner, being pushed by a nursing assistant, causing her to fall and suffer a broken hip.
In the video, Wagner tries to walk to the dinner table when she’s blocked by a nursing assistant, who then ushers her backward, ultimately pushing her up against a wall, causing Wagner to fall.
The video shows Wagner lying on the floor for several minutes before receiving assistance.
Wagner’s family has filed a lawsuit against the facility.
According to a federal inspection report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, based on a state investigation, the incident was initially documented as just a fall and not recognized as abuse until the following day.
The report also found that staff told investigators the employee involved had a history of “rough” behavior toward residents and had been “aggressive with staff members.”
The employee continued working at the facility for nine days after the incident before she was suspended on Feb. 11, 2025.
In a statement, the facility said it was “deeply disturbed” by the video and took “immediate, decisive action,” including terminating the staff member.
“This behavior is not representative of the culture we have built of safe, high-quality care, nor of the compassionate care our staff provides every day, and we took immediate, decisive action, including engaging the resident’s family and dismissal of the staff member. We reported this incident to the state and have been cooperative and transparent throughout the investigation process,” said Michelle Mazzacco, executive vice president, Continuing Care Network/The Eddy/St. Peter’s Health Partners.
The same federal report details multiple additional incidents at the facility, including a resident left unattended on a toilet for an hour and 20 minutes before being found on the floor with a permanent shoulder injury. This incident took place on November 4, 2024.
The very next day, according to the report, the same staff member is accused of telling a resident to “sit the f*** down” after the resident attempted to stand from the table after finishing their meal.
Then, on November 8, 2024, the report outlined another incident in which a resident filed a complaint after a staff member pushed them down onto the bed after the resident called for assistance in the middle of the night. The report stated the staff member then turned off the resident’s call bell and left without providing assistance.
Investigators concluded the failures extended beyond a single employee, citing breakdowns in preventing abuse, reporting incidents, investigating complaints, and protecting residents.
Federal regulators fined the facility more than $97,000, with an additional $30,000 penalty issued by New York state.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the facility stated, “The conduct documented in the February 2025 Department of Health report is unacceptable and in direct violation of our values and standards of care. The staff members involved are no longer employed at Eddy Village Green. In addition, we made changes to the facility’s management team to reinforce accountability, oversight, and resident safety. We have zero tolerance for any behavior that compromises the safety or dignity of our residents.”
However, some families say they are concerned that not all incidents are fully documented.
Rich Lovrich said his mother-in-law, a non-ambulatory resident, suffered a broken leg while at the facility in February, but the family has not received a clear explanation of how the injury occurred.
“They simply tell you the condition,” Lovrich said. “But when we ask how it happened, there are theories that come out.”
Lovrich also raised concerns about hygiene practices.
“Care issues like urine on her pillow, which my wife found a few times, a continuous eye infection that went on for a couple of years,” he said. “And we, in fact, got Eddy Village Green to agree that it was because of hygiene issues there. They were using the same basin in which to wash her butt and her face.”
In another statement, the facility responded to these allegations, saying it follows strict infection-control standards and reviews any concerns promptly, adding that corrective action is taken when needed.
“Staff are required to routinely assess each resident, document any concerns, notify appropriate clinical leadership, and communicate with the resident’s designated representatives in accordance with regulations and our internal procedures. Eddy Village Green is subject to extensive regulatory oversight at both the state and federal levels, and we encourage families to bring any concerns to us. Any concern raised that suggests a deviation from standard policy is reviewed promptly and thoroughly by our clinical leadership team, and corrective action is taken if warranted. Our priority is, and always will be, the safety, dignity, and well-being of every resident entrusted to our care,” said Michelle Mazzacco, executive vice president, Continuing Care Network/The Eddy/St. Peter’s Health Partners.
Not long after a snoozing staffer prompted a family member to call police, the facility changed its visitation procedures, which family members say only heightened their concerns.
While visitors previously had round-the-clock access using a door code, they are now required to be let in by staff between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
The facility said the change was made for security reasons, to better track who is entering the building after hours.
“Due to a number of visitors frequenting the homes late at night without the knowledge of staff, this change was instituted to ensure that all residents are safe and that we can account for all visitors and who they are seeing,” said Guilfoyle in a statement.
Some families, however, feel the change limits their ability to check in unannounced.
“We feel they’re setting up a system where if you complain, you could be refused entry,” Lovrich said.
Eddy Village Green declined an on-camera interview but said in statements that resident safety and well-being are its top priorities and that it encourages families to raise concerns.
News 12 published June 22, 2026: Hidden camera video shows alleged abuse of veteran inside NY state-run home. Shocking hidden camera video, obtained exclusively by News 12, appears to show a Gulf War veteran being assaulted inside a New York state-run veterans home in Westchester County. The veteran’s wife is now speaking out for the first time with News 12's senior reporter Tara Rosenblum in the hope that her story helps protect other residents.
News 12 published July 12, 2026: Hidden camera caught alleged veteran abuse. Now records are emerging about VA aide's past. New records are raising questions about whether warning signs were overlooked before a former aide was hired to care for veterans at the state-run Montrose Veterans Home. The Turn To Tara team uncovered court records spanning decades involving Matthew Cox, the aide accused of assaulting Gulf War veteran Albert O'Toole. Investigators say hidden camera video showed Cox striking O'Toole, who was living with a traumatic brain injury. The state Department of Health says required background checks found no prior record of negative conduct and that Cox was removed from duty and later terminated. Legal expert Bennett Gershman says the records reviewed by News 12 raise concerns about whether a more thorough background check should have been conducted.
The Turn To Tara team dug deeper into the background of an aide accused of abusing an injured Gulf War veteran - and what was found is raising serious questions about whether warning signs were missed before he was hired to care for some of the state's most vulnerable veterans.
Senior reporter Tara Rosenblum exposed the alleged assault that was caught on hidden camera video inside the state-run veterans home in Montrose - and shared first on News 12 last month.
The aide, Matthew Cox, was arrested after the video appeared to show him assaulting Gulf War veteran Albert O'Toole.
The Turn To Tara team has since obtained a federal statement of deficiencies, which describes the incident in even greater detail.
Investigators found that Cox hit O'Toole, who was living with a traumatic brain injury, with a broom on the head, grabbed him by the neck, roughly placed him into his wheelchair and then struck him.
The war hero is then heard screaming in pain.
While the video appeared to show what happened, Rosenblum wanted to find out who was responsible. The Turn To Tara team spent the last two weeks filing public records requests and scouring through court records in multiple states.
Records indicate that Cox has been involved in both civil and criminal court proceedings - spanning nearly three decades, including:
A 2017 drug case in which he was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell or deliver
A public urination charge that was later dismissed after he agreed to take a diversion program
A second-degree trespass conviction at a high school.
An "assault on a female" case that was later dismissed after the complaining witness chose not to proceed.
News 12 spoke to Bennett L Gershman, one of the tri-state's leading criminal scholars, to review the findings.
"When you see somebody getting diversion or the victim doesn't want to testify - to me -that raises a red flag. That doesn't do away with the charge, and maybe they are too scared to testify. You don't just sit back and say, 'Well, there was one conviction, and that's the end of it," said Gershman. "When you look at the background, you get a sense that this person hadn't had a very good, clean...blameless life. He's been in trouble a lot."
Gershman's opinion raised an even bigger question: Were any of these records identified before Cox was hired to care for New York's most vulnerable veterans?
So the Turn To Tara team tried to get in touch with the agencies that are responsible.
The federal DA hasn't responded yet, and the state Department of Health says it is "outraged" by Cox's alleged conduct, that he was removed from duty, later terminated and that required background checks found no prior record of negative conduct.
Gershman says that explanation doesn't hold up.
"To me, this facility - terribly dropped the ball - either they didn't do a thorough background check, or they did a very minimal background check. They seriously engaged in - to me - gross negligence in what happened here," he says.
The scrutiny is only intensifying, with Cox set to return to court next month.
News 12 also reached out to Cox and his attorney multiple times but has not heard back.
If you or your loved one has a story to share about the facility, share your story with the Turn To Tara Team.
News4JAX The Local Station published July 17, 2026: Family questions Jacksonville assisted living facility after man with dementia found dead in woods. On July 7, a 70-year-old Jacksonville man with dementia wandered from an assisted living facility and was found dead in nearby woods. His family is now questioning whether staff acted quickly enough to save him.
written by Chris Will, News4JAX reporter, Jacksonville
Friday July 17, 2026
JACKSONVILLE, Floria – On July 7, a 70-year-old Jacksonville man with dementia wandered from an assisted living facility and was found dead in nearby woods. His family is now questioning whether staff acted quickly enough to save him.
His family says critical warning signs were missed.
Victor Montano was reported missing to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on the morning of July 7. He was later found dead, and investigators say no foul play is suspected.
But his niece, Melissa Pais, who also served as his healthcare proxy, says the way the facility handled the situation has left her with serious questions.
According to a JSO incident report, officers were dispatched to Westchester Assisted Living in the Baymeadows area around 7:30 a.m. after staff reported Montano missing.
Staff told officers the last time Montano was seen was around 12:45 a.m., after he was involved in an incident in which a trash bin caught fire.
Once that was handled, JSO said staff told them they did not notice he was gone until around 7:30 a.m., nearly seven hours later.
“He kept to himself. Very, almost innocent and adolescent,” Pais said about her uncle.
Around 2:50 p.m., Jacksonville Fire Rescue’s K9 team found him in a wooded area just south of the facility, near a fence line. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Pais said she was devastated by the news.
“Loved the New York Mets, even when they lost. Loved a good cup of coffee,” Pais continued.
But Pais says as she learned what happened, she started asking questions about how it all unfolded.
She says she got a message about the fire incident earlier that morning, but not that he was missing.
Pais shared the messages with News4JAX. The first text she received came at 5:39 a.m. from someone at the facility.
It said they needed to talk and mentioned the fire but ended with “he needs immediate placement elsewhere.”
After asking some questions, the staff member says at 6 a.m.:
“He walked off and I haven’t been able to interview him yet.”
Minutes later, the staff member restated, “First and foremost, we do need placement, so we will need an update on that since his 45 days already expired.”
Then at 7:45 a.m., they said he had not been found and police were called, adding, “I think he saw what he did and took off.”
“And he was found in the woods,” Pais said, pausing to process the emotion, “Hours later.”
“This is just not what I was expecting. I moved him here, hoping he would be safe,” Pais continued.
News4JAX reached out to the facility to ask about its policies and what happened.
A staff member cited HIPAA and declined to answer any questions, including general policy questions, before hanging up.
A written message sent through the facility’s website returned an error. A follow-up message sent via Facebook had not received a response as of publication.
What News4JAX also found was a state inspection report from October 2025 that cited the facility for not maintaining documentation showing it completed the required number of resident elopement response drills, drills to respond when a resident goes missing.
“And had I known this I wouldn’t have chosen here,” Pais said. “And I would have worked harder to get him out sooner. But I’ll have to live with that.”
Arizona’s Family (3TV / CBS 5) published July 10, 2026: Investigating Phoenix assisted living facility after man killed. Video from July 2 shows nearly a dozen police SUVs surrounding the entrance to Olive Grove as officers responded to a report of an aggravated assault inside. Authorities initially described Solomon’s injuries as serious. Police later identified him and ruled his death a homicide.
Phoenix police told reporters the suspect is not an employee of the facility and that there is no threat to the public but declined to explain the basis for that determination. Police said they hope to provide more information soon.
Arizona’s Family Investigates reviewed inspection records for Olive Grove over the last two years and found five enforcement actions were taken against the facility.
PHOENIX — Phoenix Police identified a man who was assaulted inside an assisted living facility earlier this month and later died from his injuries, but questions remain about what led to the attack and how an unknown suspect gained access to the building.
John Solomon, 60, was living at Olive Grove Assisted Living on Indian School Road near 30th Street in Phoenix. His oldest daughter said he was wheelchair-bound and needed additional care. He died six days after the assault.
The assault
Video from July 2 shows nearly a dozen police SUVs surrounding the entrance to Olive Grove as officers responded to a report of an aggravated assault inside. Authorities initially described Solomon’s injuries as serious. Police later identified him and ruled his death a homicide.
Phoenix police told reporters the suspect is not an employee of the facility and that there is no threat to the public but declined to explain the basis for that determination. Police said they hope to provide more information soon.
Facility’s inspection history
Arizona’s Family Investigates reviewed inspection records for Olive Grove over the last two years and found five enforcement actions were taken against the facility.
The most recent, in March of last year, involved a manager who failed to ensure the facility conducted an investigation into an allegation of sexual assault. The month prior, state inspectors found one resident had no medical record, and another did not have medication administered properly. Three months before that, Olive Grove was fined $2,200.
AARP Arizona responds
Dana Kennedy, state director for AARP Arizona, said families should research facilities through the Arizona Department of Health Services website.
“I would definitely make sure the facility is being held accountable,” Kennedy said. “And that they provide communication frequently and often to family members. They should be communicating with the residents and the families as soon as something like this happens.”
Kennedy also addressed a bill that would have mandated the right to electronic monitoring in assisted living facilities — allowing families to place cameras in residents’ rooms with facility approval. The bill failed for the third consecutive year.
“This year we had a bill for electronic monitoring where a family would be able to put a camera into a resident’s room if they wanted it and if it was approved, and that bill died,” Kennedy said. “The third year in a row, which makes me furious because we would have answers had this resident had a camera.”
Do you have a story you want us to investigate? Tell us about it by contacting us.
WESH 2 News published July 9, 2026: Detective links deaths to unlicensed assisted-living facilities run by couple in Osceola.
FOX 35 Orlando published July 9, 2026: 5 deaths connected to Osceola, Polk counties unlicensed assisted living facility. Detective and prosecutors unveiled new information during the bond hearing of Ronald Keith Pack, 60, and Marie Carenan, 56, who are accused of a years-long scheme involving running unlicensed assisted living facilities. Five deaths are connected to these facilities, officials confirmed. DCF was referring patients to these facilities even after reports were filed against them.
FOX 35 Orlando published July 10, 2026: Florida couple accused of using taser on disabled, elderly patients. Investigators say Ronald Keith Pack, 60, and Marie Carenan, 56, ran a network of unlicensed assisted living facilities in Polk and Osceola County. FOX 35 has learned that the couple is accused of using tasers and pepper spray against some of the individuals in their care. The two were denied bond during a July 9 hearing.
written by Madilyn Destefano, Digital Content Producer and Justin Schecker, Investigative Reporter
Wednesday June 24, 2026
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Florida — Authorities in Osceola County arrested Marie Carenan and Ronald Pack, accusing them of operating nine unlicensed assisted living facilities under the name "Cherish Home Care."
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office shared a video showing a SWAT team executing a search warrant on Wednesday morning as part of the investigation into illegal assisted living facilities.
Sheriff Chris Blackmon said nine residents were removed from one of the homes in Kissimmee and relocated to licensed facilities.
"We got more information from them, and we also were greeted with hugs, and thank God you're here to get us out of here," Blackmon said.
Blackmon said neither Carenan nor Pack were licensed by the state, nor did they employ nurses to care for bedridden residents.
"Carenan and Pack both face charges, including scheme to defraud, elder neglect, aggravated elder abuse, elder exploitation, elder abuse, and welfare fraud," Blackmon said.
In total, the couple is accused of operating nine unlicensed facilities in Central Florida.
"Six of the nine were still in operation, which is where we get the three search warrants today in Poinciana and the three search warrants in Polk County," Blackmon said.
Since January 2021, deputies and firefighters responded to more than 300 calls for service at the couple’s facilities, which were mostly operated out of rented homes.
"This investigation began when Detective Manguel noticed issues concerning very concerning in the response to one of the 911 calls to one of the facilities in Poinciana," Blackmon said.
During the year-long investigation, the lead detective discovered locks on windows, doors, refrigerators, and cabinets containing food for residents, Blackmon said. Deputies also reported that the facilities lacked lifesaving equipment and fire extinguishers.
Blackmon reminded families to carefully vet care facilities before entrusting them with vulnerable loved ones.
"Please take the time to verify that the location is properly licensed, staffed with qualified professionals, and operating within the state guidelines. If you have any questions about that and you're unsure, call us," Blackmon said.
The sheriff said he expects statewide prosecutors to file additional charges against the couple.
ORLANDO, Fla. - After a visit from sheriff's deputies and healthcare professionals, five residents at unlicensed assisted living homes – operated by Cherish Home Care – were removed due to poor conditions, records show.
The owners of Cherish Home Care are now accused of multiple felony charges concerning elder and disabled adult abuse.
What we know: In May 2025, representatives from multiple state and local agencies visited Cherish Home Care facilities. The joint operation included the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA), and the Florida Department of Children and Families' Adult Protective Services Program.
Inspectors with those three agencies found conditions in the unlicensed facilities to be so bad, they wound up removing 5 residents.
Records show at least two people died in a Cherish Home facility after that, at 958 Louvre Court and 716 Swan Way.
DCF was called back to those facilities in April 2026, while deputies were still investigating the owners.
However, in its report from April 2026, DCF repeatedly concluded, "There are no implications for vulnerable adult safety," and "There are no recommended services for the vulnerable adults."
The 2026 report
In its April 2026 report, DCF called the Cherish Home Care facility a "group home" and "independent living facility" – but also refers to the people living there as "vulnerable adults" with neurocognitive disorders, physical limitations, and mental illnesses, some of whom need assistance with shopping, transportation, and money handling… and the report calls the staff "caregivers."
Cherish Home Care and its owners had already been cited at this point for operating without a license, and were being fined a thousand dollars a day.
Resident allegations: Stolen EBT cards, not licensed to give meds
DCF took reports from residents about, quote, "downright despicable things." – the owner allegedly hitting residents, taking their EBT cards, administering medication without licenses to do so.
DCF’s investigators said they toured the facility with deputies, and found the bedroom furniture dirty and stained, with two beds per makeshift room, ceiling fans with no lights, and bedroom windows screwed shut with planks nailed to the outside. They found the refrigerator locked. They found the garage full of trash, dirty mattresses, broken furniture, and a basket of medications.
But for the allegations of exploitation, the report said, "No implication for vulnerable adult safety." The case was closed.
As for the allegation of maltreatment with medical neglect, the case was also closed as no substantiated findings or implications for vulnerable adult safety were found, DCF reports said. An investigation into physical injury was also closed.
In court, witness after witness said that wasn’t true.
Family ‘disgusted’ by treatment
The April report includes details about Ashley Griffin’s father, who said she was disgusted by reading it.
"Just wow," she said. "I don't understand what's going on. I don't know. I'm in the complete shock."
Griffin removed her father from Cherish Home Care the day after DCF toured the facilities. She told the State Attorney’s Office and FOX 35 News that she took him to the hospital for treatment of malnourishment, dehydration, and complications with his diabetes. He stayed there for weeks, she said.
"You see that and you say no abuse? So what will it take? Someone dead?" said Griffin. "I've reached out [to DCF] so many times. I've called the 407 number numerous times, at least ten times. I've emailed. Nothing."
DCF’s response
What they're saying: The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office says DCF and FACT (a team overseen by DCF) both placed vulnerable adults in Cherish Home Care’s facilities, despite the facilities, owners, and caretakers not having licenses to care for disabled adults.
A DCF spokesperson told FOX 35 in a statement on June 30th, "Department Adult Protective Investigators did not refer or place vulnerable adults in the care of Cherish Home LLC or any of its related entities as they were not licensed facilities. If an individual is in need of placement assistance for an assisted living facility, Adult Protective Investigators use AHCA’s database to identify licensed placement options."
That directly contradicts testimony provided under oath by multiple people who say DCF in fact did refer disabled adults to Cherish Home Care. Further, a search of AHCA’s database shows Cherish Home Care is not licensed, and was fined for operating without a license.
AHCA’s response
FOX 35 has reached out to the Agency for Healthcare Administration multiple times and has not received a response.
FOX 35 Investigative Reporter Marie Edinger called AHCA’s records division on July 15, several times. Each time, she was immediately placed on hold and then the line disconnected after three minutes.
ABC15 Arizona published July 15, 2026: This Arizona group home made 600+ missing child reports in four years. Xion Ervin-Jenkins' bedroom is waiting for a boy who will never come home again. His mom, Stephanie Combs, keeps the room just as he left it: drawers half-open, running shoes on the floor. Combs says a juvenile judge ordered Xion, who was 15 years old, to attend a residential treatment program in spring 2025. “I was under the impression that he was going to be safe," Combs said. He arrived at Canyon State Academy in Queen Creek on May 21, 2025, after a wildfire forced evacuations at a different facility. He disappeared a few days later.
FOX 10 Phoenix published February 11, 2026: New Arizona DCS data: Missing kids & group home risks. Arizona Department of Child Safety data shows that 74% of missing foster children disappeared from group homes between January 2024 and September 2025. While the agency reported that 82% of all missing children are located within 24 hours, advocacy groups warn those in state care remain primary targets for sex trafficking and exploitation.
Critics noted that a specialized unit established in 2024 to track these cases is currently staffed by only three employees. In response, State Rep. Walter Blackman, R-District 7, introduced House Bill 2860 to create a $2 million independent oversight committee. The bill, which would monitor agency performance and funding, is among 20 pieces of legislation aimed at DCS reform this session.
FOX 10 Investigator Justin Lum has the details.
FOX 10 Phoenix published March 4, 2026: Teen girls from Queen Creek facility trafficked at 'The Blade' in Phoenix. Queen Creek Police have responded to more than 2,000 calls for service at Canyon State and Desert Lily academies since 2022, with missing persons reports averaging one child every two days over a two-year span.
Police Chief Randy Brice warned that some runaway cases involve "high risk" youths and have evolved into sex trafficking investigations, including a 2022 case that resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for a man who exploited three minors.
The Department of Child Safety and facility owner Rite of Passage defended the programs, stating the high runaway rates are due to the intensive needs of the children, though missing youth reports have reportedly dropped 40% since late 2024.
12 News published June 27, 2026: Missing child from Arizona found in Washington homeless encampment. U.S. Marshals received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a child from Mesa who went missing in May sighted in the Olympia area.
PHOENIX — Xion Ervin-Jenkins' bedroom is waiting for a boy who will never come home again.
His mom, Stephanie Combs, keeps the room just as he left it: drawers half-open, running shoes on the floor.
Combs says a juvenile judge ordered Xion, who was 15 years old, to attend a residential treatment program in spring 2025.
“I was under the impression that he was going to be safe," Combs said.
He arrived at Canyon State Academy in Queen Creek on May 21, 2025, after a wildfire forced evacuations at a different facility. He disappeared a few days later.
After six weeks, on July 4, 2025, Phoenix police arrived on Combs’ doorstep.
“They came to the house to let us know that he had been found deceased,” Combs said.
Combs will never know why her son decided to run away.
“I don't wish that type of pain on anyone,” Combs said.
600 Missing Person Calls
Canyon State Academy for boys and Desert Lily Academy for girls are side-by-side campuses in Queen Creek.
Arizona’s foster care system and the juvenile courts keep sending kids here, but the tall walls don't keep them all safe inside.
ABC15 reviewed call-for-service records from the Queen Creek Police Department between January 2022 and September 2025. In all, the campuses made more than 600 missing person calls to police in less than four years.
“We don't need any more kids going missing or dying,” said Leila Woodard, founder of the Arizona Missing Child Taskforce.
Through her organization, Woodard makes runaway prevention presentations, assists families of missing children, and raises community awareness. She also keeps tabs on how many kids go missing from group homes, including Canyon State and Desert Lily.
“They're going missing at rapid amounts, like, more than anywhere, any other home in the state,” Woodard said.
A spokesperson for the academies says they serve about 600 youth a year. Combined, they are the largest group home facility licensed by the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
Most of the kids on campus are teens who were sent by DCS caseworkers or the juvenile court system - after prior placements didn’t work out. They are provided housing, therapy, schooling, job training, sports, and other activities like horseback riding.
“People are like, well, what's happening there?” said Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice. “These kids are at risk already, so when they leave the facility, that's a high concern for us.”
Representatives from Canyon State and Desert Lily declined on-camera interviews. In a statement, a spokesperson wrote, “We report to the QCPD proactively because speed matters and child safety comes first. That practice can inflate the number of reports, but it reflects our commitment to safety, not a failure to care.”
DCS also replied with requests for comment by providing a statement, which said, “Call-for-service data does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing by the facility or staff. Many reported incidents reflect the significant behavioral and emotional challenges presented by the population the facility serves.”
“I’m very confident that they have a great mission, but I'm going to continue to hold them accountable,” Brice said. “I'm going to make sure that these kids are as safe as I can possibly make that.”
Dangers on the Streets
DCS rules prevent group homes from locking youth in or preventing a safe exit.
Brice said there are still ways to improve security, including expanding camera coverage and better tracking kids as they move from place to place.
Brice says he’s also worked to speed up response times to missing child calls.
“As soon as a call comes out there, the drone is en route. We have cameras all around the facility on our street cameras,” Brice said. “We're seeing about 90% of the runaways -- we're catching within minutes to maybe an hour or two.”
Queen Creek police officials say these efforts are making a difference, and they’ve seen missing child calls from the facilities trending down.
According to the academy’s spokesperson, many of their missing child reports involve repeat episodes, brief absences, children located quickly, reports tied to home passes, appointments, or on-campus outings.
Most youth are located safely, but two remain missing as of Wednesday, July 15, 2026. They are Abrianna Madrid, 15, and Aiden Searcy, 16.
“They're so vulnerable to things like trafficking or exploitation,” Woodard said. She added that reducing the number of missing children from such a large facility would have a significant impact.
Overall, Woodard said better conditions and more services for kids living in Arizona group homes could dissuade more kids from leaving. She has also lobbied for more resources to locate missing foster kids after high-profile deaths. These include the murders of Emily Pike and Zariah Dodd in 2025 after they ran away from different group homes in the Valley.
Xion turned 16 during the weeks he was missing. He died on a concrete bench in Phoenix, about a mile from his mom’s home. The day before he was found, the temperature hit 115º. The medical examiner determined it was a heat death.
Canyon State Academy’s spokesperson described Xion’s death as tragic, adding in a statement that “we immediately reported his absence to law enforcement and fully cooperated with their investigation.”
But an academy spokesman also wrote that Xion “was never a student of Canyon State” as “he was evacuated from another state-licensed open campus.”
ABC15 learned the evacuated campus is also managed by Rite of Passage, the same company that runs Canyon State and Desert Lily.
The one-year anniversary of Xion’s death just passed, and Combs said she is taking it “one day at a time.”
“Sometimes, I sit out in the backyard at night - and recently we’ve had a couple of full moons - and I see a big X in the sky. That’s my boy showing up,” Combs said.
Additional statement from Canyon State and Desert Lily Academies:
"Many youth in our care have experienced trauma, instability, exploitation, behavioral health challenges, and, in some cases, runaway episodes. For more than 25 years, we have provided a safe, normalized environment where children attend school, receive therapy, play sports, join clubs and vocational or equine programs, build trust with caring adults, and begin to see a different future.
The academies are licensed, regulated, and Qualified Residential Treatment Programs in good standing. By state design, they are not locked facilities. Youth who leave voluntarily are immediately reported.
We are proud of our community partners, therapists, teachers, nurses, direct-care staff, and other professionals who do difficult work every day with children who deserve dignity, compassion, and a chance to heal."
NewsNation published July 18, 2026: ‘They were traps’: Woman blows whistle on fake sober living homes. Reva Stewart tells “Jesse Weber Live” she began investigating an Arizona Medicaid scam after her cousin was effectively kidnapped by operators of a fake sober living home who gave her drugs and alcohol. Now, the Navajo advocate says she feels she may be in danger: “I’ve been followed. I’ve had all four of my tires slashed on my vehicle.”
NewsNation published July 16, 2026: 2,000 dead or missing — Inside a $12 billion Medicaid scam. Attorneys representing as many as 7,000 victims say scammers targeted vulnerable Native Americans with promises of free addiction treatment, transporting them to fraudulent sober living homes in Arizona where providers billed Medicaid up to $8,000 a day per person for care never provided. Advocates and attorneys say the scheme may have cost taxpayers as much as $12 billion, with as many as 2,000 people dead or missing. Attorneys John Brewer and Dane Wood join "Jesse Weber Live."
written/reported by Jesse Weber and Tatiana Carter
Thrusday July 16, 2026
A Native American woman who checked into a sober living home to get clean is now the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit accusing the state of Arizona of enabling a Medicaid fraud scheme that attorneys say has harmed as many as 7,000 Native Americans and left possibly 2,000 dead or missing.
Randi Lynn Honyumptewa was staying at a facility in Phoenix’s gated Western Enclave community, one of roughly 20 licensed group homes packing into a single neighborhood, according to the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.
On Christmas Eve in 2022, while detoxing from an alcohol binge, a staff member gave her a pill to “help her feel better.” It was fentanyl.
“She said, ‘I don’t feel good.’ The house manager walks up, says, ‘Take this.’ She takes the pill; its fentanyl,” John Brewer said, one of the attorneys representing Honyumptewa. “She goes into cardiac arrest, lack of oxygen to the brain.”
The lawsuit says Honyumptewa suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her unable to walk or swallow. She requires a feeding tube and 24-hour care for the rest of her life, the complaint says.
What does lawsuit say happened inside Arizona sober living homes?
Under Arizona’s American Indian Health Program, registered providers can bill Medicaid directly for addiction and behavioral health services delivered to eligible Native American patients.
Attorneys John Brewer and Dane Wood told NewsNation’s “Jesse Weber Live” that fraudsters exploited that system by recruiting people from tribal communities in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Montana and the Dakotas, funneling them into fake “sober living” homes that billed Medicaid for treatment rarely, if ever, given.
“It clearly is a human trafficking [scheme] and not just a Medicaid fraud scheme,” Brewer said. “They were held against their will, they were given drugs, they were given alcohol … their phones were taken away.”
Recruiters allegedly approached people at gas stations, grocery stores and bus stops with promises of food, shelter and treatment, sometimes driving them from remote areas of the Navajo Nation to Phoenix in unmarked vans.
Some victims arrived with only an alcohol addiction and left addicted to methamphetamine or fentanyl, because keeping people dependent kept the billing flowing.
Wood described one victim found with a blood alcohol level of .543, more alcohol than blood, who he said was dumped on the street outside a sober living home.
“They were feeding their addictions to control them … keep them addicted so they could continue the billing for longer periods of time,” Wood said.
When did Arizona learn about sober living home fraud?
The lawsuit alleges AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid agency, first learned of the fraud in July 2019, when a whistleblower reported irregular billing tied to a company called Henson Family Services. By 2020, unlawful payments tied to the scheme totaled about $43 million, according to the complaint.
Despite the 2022 warning memo, the state took no immediate action, the lawsuit alleges, and fraudulent payments ultimately ballooned to roughly $2.8 billion by 2023.
“This fraud was allowed to metastasize largely because the people in charge prior to 2023 were asleep at the wheel,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said. At a May 2023 press conference cited in the lawsuit, Mayes acknowledged the state had been “negligent at best” in its financial oversight.
Gov. Katie Hobbs called the crisis a humanitarian one that should outrage Arizonans, and both officials have said the scheme originated with a Nevada-based criminal syndicate that migrated into Arizona.
Mayes’ office said it has secured more than 180 indictments and helped drive a 92% drop in fraudulent billing since 2023, and Hobbs has rolled out an AI tool meant to flag suspicious claims before they’re paid.
Medicaid fraud: Do victims’ attorneys think Arizona’s response is enough?
Brewer and Wood told Jesse Weber those numbers overstate the state’s progress, saying Arizona froze payments to providers for 18 months and imposed a moratorium on new ones.
They say fewer than five people are in prison despite hundreds of suspended providers, and no one has been charged with negligent homicide or manslaughter in connection with the deaths.
“Getting these indictments, in my opinion, is nothing more than a political stunt,” Brewer said.
The lawsuit, which the state twice tried unsuccessfully to have dismissed, is now back before a trial court after the Arizona Court of Appeals and Arizona Supreme Court both allowed it to proceed.
Autonomy is referenced or invoked in a number of key ways in ethical theory:
(i) Autonomy serves as a ground for the claims that persons have dignity and inherently deserve basic moral respect
(ii) Autonomy is said to have a value that grounds the claim that persons deserve to be told the truth
(iii) Autonomy is referenced as a fundamental principle of ethics in Kantian deontology
(iv) Autonomy is commonly viewed as a key component of human well-being (and is therefore significant for utilitarianism)
(v) Autonomy is defended as an important virtue
(vi) Autonomy is said to be necessary for moral responsibility
(vii) Autonomy is said to have a value that grounds the claim that autonomy-based demands are worthy of special respect
(i) Ever since Kant, autonomy (or the capacity for autonomy) has been referenced by some philosophers as that property of human beings by virtue of which they possess inherent dignity and therefore inherently deserve to be treated with basic moral respect. Kant’s justification for the claim that autonomy grounds the inherent dignity of persons was based on the view that it is by virtue of our autonomy that we are ends-in-ourselves. Beings that lack autonomy are, precisely because of this lack, essentially at the mercy of the determinism that characterizes the phenomenal realm: they are controlled by forces that have nothing to do with their own will. Beings that possess autonomy on the other hand, are, precisely because of this possession, free from this determination; they have the capacity for freedom through the active exercise of their autonomous wills, which allows for the legislation of universal law. Autonomous agents are not passive players in life; they are active agents, determining themselves by their own will, the authors of the laws that they follow (see Guyer 2003). As such, they are not passive means towards nature’s determined ends, but are ends-in-themselves, by virtue of which they possess inherent dignity and deserve basic moral respect.
Many have followed Kant in referencing autonomy as the ground of human dignity and as the basis of the basic moral respect owed to persons, although not all have followed Kant in the details of his account (for a recent account that moves away from Kant’s conception of noumenal freedom, see Korsgaard 1996). The most common objection leveled against this account is that it runs into problems involving exclusion. Most would argue that the mentally handicapped, for example, are owed basic moral respect, even if they do not possess (even the capacity for) autonomy. And if human dignity is indexed to the presence of autonomy, it is argued, this would entail, counter-intuitively, that those who are more autonomous have more dignity, and are more worthy of respect. It may also be argued that the capacity for autonomy is a poor ground for human dignity (and respect for persons) for other reasons–for example, because autonomy has no essential connection to morality, or because better grounds are available, or because the very project of grounding human dignity on a property of some kind is ill-conceived. Despite these worries, however, appeals to autonomy as a basis for human dignity and basic moral respect remain quite popular.
(ii) Some philosophers have argued that a proper appreciation for others as autonomous (or as possessing the capacity for autonomy) requires that one not seek to deceive them. Respect for autonomy is thus said to have an important relation to truthfulness. In Thomas Hill’s words, “Lies often reflect inadequate respect for the autonomy of the person who is deceived.” (Hill 1991) We saw above that autonomy’s value has been used to ground the basic moral respect owed to persons; and the present injunction against deception may be viewed as a specific form that autonomy-based respect for persons may take. It is easy to see why a connection between respect for autonomy and truthfulness (or what comes to the same thing–an injunction against deception) has been attractive to some philosophers, especially those in the Kantian tradition.
When we deceive others for our own purposes, we bypass their reflective abilities and make them instruments in the achievement of our own ends, and in doing this we fail to treat them as persons capable and deserving of self-determination. Proper respect for persons as autonomous thus requires a commitment to truthfulness. It has been argued, however, that one may respect and value the autonomy of another while deceiving them at the same time (Buss 2005). One may, for example, use forms of deception so that another’s capacity for autonomy may flourish. The basic idea here is that one may still reason for oneself despite being deliberately influenced by the deceptive behavior of others. As Sarah Buss writes, “To put it somewhat crudely, whether an instance of practical reasoning is self-determined is a matter of whether it is really the agent herself who is doing the reasoning. And this would seem to depend on whether she determines her response to the considerations that figure in her reasoning–not on how the considerations to which she responds relate to reality, nor on how she came to be aware of these considerations.”
It may be argued, however, that the conception of autonomy underlying this claim is too thin to be acceptable, and that a better conception would contain the resources necessary to judge self-determining reasoning influenced by the deliberate deception of another as nonautonomous. In this vein, some have argued that a person is autonomous in relation to a given desire or choice only if that person would not feel alienated from the causal process that gave rise to that desire or choice (Christman 2007). On the assumption that persons would feel alienated from deceptive desire- or choice-forming processes, the associated desires or choices would not count as autonomous. In response to this, however, it may be argued that autonomous agents may not feel alienated from all (or many) deceptive forms of influence upon the formation of their desires and choices, depending on the circumstances (Buss 2005). If this were the case, then a commitment to the value of autonomy may not be inconsistent with certain forms of deception or manipulation. Yet, given the traditional opposition between autonomous self-determination and agential determination rooted in deceit and manipulation, it is to be expected that resistance to the notion that they are not incompatible will continue.
(iii) Autonomy plays a key role in Kant’s deontological ethics. We have already seen this in the way in which Kant grounds human dignity in autonomy. But autonomy plays a further (and closely related) normative role for Kant. It is often said that Kant held that the Categorical Imperative can be expressed in three closely related formulas: the Formula of Universal Law, the Formula of Humanity, and the Formula of the Kingdom of Ends. It has also been claimed, however, that Kant defended a fourth formula, which may be called the Formula of Autonomy. Although Kant did not state this formula explicitly, it has been argued that it can be plausibly derived from his description of the Categorical Imperative as “the idea of the will of every rational being as a will that legislates universal law.” The corresponding Formula of Autonomy could then be expressed as an imperative in this way: act so that the maxims you will could be the legislation of universal law. According to this formula, we should act according to principles that express the autonomy of the will. This formulation is important, firstly because it suggests that Kant conceived autonomy as a normative principle (and not merely as a condition of the will that makes morality possible), and secondly because it further reinforces Kant’s claim that humans, as autonomous law-givers, are the source of the universal law that guarantees their freedom and hence marks them out as possessing inherent dignity (see Reath 2006).
(iv) Autonomy is commonly held to be a core component of well-being. This view goes back at least to Mill’s On Liberty, and has been accepted by many contemporary philosophers as well (see for example Griffin 1986 and Sumner 1996). In this connection, some argue that autonomy is an intrinsic part of well-being, and others argue that being autonomous reliably leads to well-being (and hence has instrumental prudential value). Although thus far, the normative importance of autonomy has been described as being associated primarily with deontology, the claim that autonomy is a core component of well-being shows that it can play a key role in consequentialist moral theories as well. Indeed, as will be discussed in greater detail below (section 4), although most defenses of the principle of respect for autonomy are deontological in nature, it is also possible to defend the principle on consequentialist grounds. From this point of view, it can be argued that autonomy deserves respect because respecting autonomy is reliably conducive to well-being.
(v) Autonomy has been claimed to be an important virtue to possess. It is not difficult to see why this is the case. The autonomous person is a person possessing a constellation of widely desirable qualities such as self-control, self-knowledge, rationality and reflective maturity. To be autonomous is to be self-governing; to be free from domination by foreign influences over one’s character and values; to ‘be one’s own person’. Following from this, it is claimed by some that autonomy is a great virtue to possess - one which constitutes an important part of human flourishing. It may be objected, however, that an excessive concern with autonomy can be at odds with virtue, especially if robust autonomy entails an inability to exhibit loyalty or fidelity to projects, other persons or communities. Recent work on personal autonomy, however, has tended to support the notion that autonomy possession is not incompatible with these and similar forms of attachment (Friedman 2003).
(vi) Autonomy has been seen by some thinkers as having implications for a correct account of moral responsibility. Some accounts hold that autonomy is a necessary condition for moral responsibility. The basic defense of this claim is that it makes little sense to say that someone is morally responsible for her actions if she is not the author of those actions; and since one is the author of one’s actions only if one is autonomous, autonomy possession is necessary for moral responsibility. According to this account, the class of actions that are autonomous and the class of actions for which we are morally responsible are identical, or at least almost so (see Fischer and Ravizza 1998). Other accounts hold that although persons are certainly morally responsible for their autonomous actions, they are also morally responsible for a wider range of actions as well. An account of this sort is often made by those who hold a more demanding conception of autonomy; and defenders of this account argue that we still want to hold persons morally responsible for the many actions that do not satisfy robust autonomy conditions on the one hand, but are not constituted of sheer heteronomy (brainwashing, psychosis, coercion, and so forth) on the other (see Arpaly 2005).
(vi) Many thinkers believe that autonomous claims or demands are worthy of special normative uptake–special respect–by virtue of the fact that they are autonomous. It is important to see how this claim is different from the first point given above (viz., that autonomy is said to ground basic moral respect for persons). The former claim is that the fact that persons are autonomous (or have the capacity for autonomy) is what grounds their special dignity, by virtue of which they are owed basic moral respect. Now, it is possible to owe someone basic moral respect, but not to owe special respect to a subset of their choices. Imagine that someone is brainwashed, for example. Many would argue that although we owe that person basic moral respect (for example, we are obligated, say, not to harm them or to lie to them), we do not owe special respect to that person’s demands (say, to promote or not interfere with those demands). The current claim holds, however, that the fact that a person’s choices are autonomous generates special demands of respect for those choices over and above the basic respect owed to the chooser (whether this be conceived as being by virtue of their capacity for autonomy or not). This principle–that autonomous choice deserves special respect–may be justified in either a deontological or consequentialist manner. Because of the considerable importance of this principle, however, it deserves a more detailed discussion, which is provided in section 4 below.
Autonomy is variously rendered as self-law, self-government, self-rule, or self-determination. The concept first came into prominence in ancient Greece (from the Greek auto-nomos), where it characterized city states that were self governing. Only later–during the European Enlightenment–did autonomy come to be widely understood as a property of persons. Today the concept is used in both senses, although most contemporary philosophers deal with autonomy primarily as a property of persons. This orientation will be maintained here.
Most people would agree that autonomy is normatively important. This agreement is reflected both in the presence of broad assent to the principle that autonomy deserves respect, and in the popular practice of arguing for the institution (or continuation, or discontinuation) of public policy based in some way on the value of self-determination. Many also believe that developing and cultivating autonomy is an important–indeed, on some accounts, an indispensable–part of living a good life. But although the claim that autonomy is normatively significant in some way is intuitively compelling, it is not obvious why autonomy has this significance, or what weight autonomy-based considerations should be given in relation to competing normative considerations. In order to answer these questions with sufficient rigor, it is necessary to have a more detailed understanding of what autonomy is.
This article will be devoted to canvassing the leading work done by philosophers on these two issues, beginning with the question of the nature of autonomy, and then moving to the question of the normative significance of autonomy. It will be seen that autonomy has been understood in several different ways, that it has been claimed to have normative significance of various kinds, and that it has been employed in a wide range of philosophical issues. Special attention will be paid to the question of justification of the principle of respect for autonomous choice.
1. History of the Concept of Autonomy
The concept of autonomy first came into prominence in ancient Greece, where it characterized self-governing city-states. Barring one exception (mentioned below), autonomy was not explicitly predicated of persons, although there is reason to hold that many philosophers of that time had something similar in mind when they wrote of persons being guided or ruled by reason. Plato and Aristotle, for example–as well as many of the Stoics–surely would have agreed that a person ruled by reason is a properly self-governing or self-ruling person. What one does not find, however, are ancient philosophers speaking of the ideal of autonomy as that of living according to one’s unique individuality. The one exception to this appears to be found in the thinker and orator Dio of Prusa (ca. 50–ca. 120), who, in his 80th Discourse, clearly seems to predicate autonomy of individual persons in roughly the sense in which it has come to be understood in our own day (see Cooper 2003).
Medieval philosophers made no use of the concept of autonomy that is worthy of note, although once again, many medieval philosophers would have doubtless agreed that those who live in accordance with right reason and the will of God are properly self-governing. The concept of autonomy wouldn’t be circulated in learned circles again until the Renaissance and early modern times, when it was employed both in the traditional political sense, and in an ecclesiastical sense, to refer to churches that were–or at least claimed to be –independent of the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope (see Pohlmann 1971).
The concept of autonomy came into philosophical prominence for the first time with the work of Immanuel Kant. Kant’s work on autonomy, however, was strongly influenced by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, so a brief word on Rousseau is in order. Although Rousseau did not use the term ‘autonomy’ in his writings, his conception of moral freedom–defined as “obedience to the law one has prescribed to oneself”– has a clear relation to Kant’s understanding of autonomy (as will be shown below). Moreover, Rousseau wrote of moral freedom as a property of persons, thus presaging Kant’s predication of autonomy of persons. The connections between Rousseau and Kant cannot be taken too far, however; for Rousseau was primarily concerned with the question of how moral freedom can be achieved and sustained by individuals within society given the presence of relations of social dependency and the possibility of domination, whereas Kant was primarily concerned with the place of autonomy in accounts of the subjective conditions requisite for, and the nature of, morality. Because of the connections Kant drew between autonomy and morality, Kant’s conception of autonomy is sometimes referred to as ‘moral autonomy’.
In the nineteenth century, John Stuart Mill contributed to the discussion on the normative significance of autonomy in his work On Liberty. Although Mill did not use the term ‘autonomy’ in this work, he is widely understood as having had self-determination in mind. Mill’s work continues to have considerable influence on discussions on the normative significance of autonomy in relation to paternalism of various kinds.
A tremendous amount of research on autonomy has taken place in the last several decades in both the analytic and continental traditions. Continental philosophers speak more often of authenticity than of autonomy, but there are clear connections between the two, insofar as the ‘self’ in ‘self-determination’ is plausibly understood as the authentic self. Philosophers working in the analytic tradition have gone into great detail attempting to discern necessary and sufficient conditions for the presence of autonomy, as well as to uncover the ground and implications of its normative significance.
2. Conceptions of Autonomy
There are several different conceptions of autonomy, all of which are loosely based upon the core notions of self-government or self-determination, but which differ considerably in the details.
a. Moral Autonomy
As mentioned, moral autonomy is associated with the work of Kant, and is also referred to as ‘autonomy of the will’ or ‘Kantian autonomy.’ This form of autonomy consists in the capacity of the will of a rational being to be a law to itself, independently of the influence of any property of objects of volition. More specifically, an autonomous will is said to be free in both a negative and a positive sense. The will is negatively free in that it operates entirely independently of alien influences, including all contingent empirical determinations associated with appetite, desire-satisfaction, or happiness. The will is positively free in that it can act in accordance with its own law. Kant’s notion of autonomy of the will thus involves, as Andrews Reath has written, “not only a capacity for choice that is motivationally independent, but a lawgiving capacity that is independent of determination by external influence and is guided by its own internal principle–in other words, by a principle that is constitutive of lawgiving” (Reath 2006). Now, because the lawgiving of the autonomous will contains no content given by contingent empirical influences, this lawgiving must be universal; and because these laws are the product of practical reason, they are necessary. Insofar, then, as Kant understood moral laws as universal and necessary practical laws, it can be seen why Kant posited an essential connection between the possession of autonomy and morality: the products of the autonomous will are universal and necessary practical laws–that is, moral laws. It is thus by virtue of our autonomy that we are capable of morality, and we are moral to the extent that we are autonomous. It is for this reason that Kant’s conception of autonomy is described as moral autonomy. Moral autonomy refers to the capacity of rational agents to impose upon themselves–to legislate for themselves–the moral law.
Furthermore, the capacity for autonomy, according to Kant, is “the basis of the dignity of human and of every rational nature;” and in accordance with this rational nature, is an end in itself. Furthermore, it “restricts freedom of action, and is an object of respect”. Many thinkers have followed Kant in grounding the dignity of persons (and respect for persons generally) in our capacity for autonomy (although it should be noted that not all of these thinkers have accepted Kant’s conception of autonomy). More will be said on this below.
Moral autonomy is said to be a bivalent property possessed by all rational beings by virtue of their rationality–although according to Kant, it is certainly possible not to live in accordance with its deliverances in practice (for more on Kant’s conception of autonomy, see Hill 1989, Guyer 2003, and Reath 2006).
One of the most common objections to this conception of autonomy is that such a robust form of independence from contingent empirical influences is not possible. Kant defended the possibility of such robust independence by arguing that human agents inhabit two realms at once: the phenomenal realm of experience, in relation to which we are determined; and a noumenal or transcendental realm of the intellect, in relation to which we are free. Given the further claim that our noumenal self can exercise efficient causality in the phenomenal realm, Kant held that our autonomy is in large part constituted by our noumenal freedom. The postulation of such a form of freedom may be criticized as metaphysically extravagant, however; and if such freedom is not possible, then neither is moral autonomy in Kant’s strict sense. Some thinkers have argued that Kant’s theorization on the noumenal realm was not meant to have metaphysical significance. Thomas Hill has argued, for example, that Kant may have been merely elaborating on the practical conditions in which we must understand ourselves insofar as we conceive ourselves as free. Objectors have insisted, however, that Kant intended to assert the more robust form of metaphysical freedom. Indeed, it could be pressed, he must have; for without this sense of freedom being operative, actual autonomy–and hence morality, by Kant’s lights–would not be possible.
b. Existentialist Autonomy
Existentialist autonomy is an extreme form of autonomy associated principally with the writings of Jean Paul Sartre. It refers to the complete freedom of subjects to determine their natures and guiding principles independently of any forms of social, anthropological or moral determination. To possess existentialist autonomy is thus to be able to choose one’s nature without constraint from any principles not of one’s own choosing. Sartre held this radical freedom to be entailed by the truth of atheism. According to Sartre, God’s nonexistence entails two key conclusions: firstly, humans cannot have a predetermined nature; and secondly, there cannot exist a realm of values possessing independent validity. Taken together, this entails that human beings are radically free: “For if indeed existence precedes essence, one will never be able to explain one’s action by reference to a given and specific human nature; in other words, there is no determinism–man is free, man is freedom. Nor, on the other hand, if God does not exist, are we provided with any values or commands that could legitimize our behavior. Thus we have neither behind us, nor before us in a luminous realm of values, any means of justification or excuse.” Fettered neither by a predetermined nature nor by an independently existing order of values, “[m]an is nothing else but what he makes of himself” (Sartre 1946).
Like moral autonomy, existentialist autonomy is a bivalent property which all human persons are said to possess (although possibly without being aware of this). Unlike moral autonomy, however, existentialist autonomy has no necessary connections to morality or to rationality as traditionally conceived.
The primary objection to existentialist autonomy is that it is too radical to be plausible. Even if God does not exist, it is argued, it does not follow that humans lack a nature that determines–at least to some extent–their choices, tendencies, proclivities, and guiding principles. A thoroughly naturalistic conception of human nature, informed by an understanding of the evolutionary forces operative in human psychology, seems to militate against the notion that humans are as unbounded as existentialist autonomy suggests we are. At the very least, it could be argued that empirical evidence does not speak in favor of the existence of existentialist autonomy in any robust form.
I love to travel and get away from it all whether it's 1st class, 2nd class or 3rd class makes no difference to me. I simply love to visit new places and meet new people. I really enjoy extreme sports. I started blogging 18 years ago and love to be able to express and share thoughts with others.
Most recently a Mortgage Professional prior to implosion. Earned a living in my previous career as an Institutional Equity Trader (sell side). I have a bachelor's degree in finance with special emphasis in economics.
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The Fall of the Cabal
The Wall Street Conspiracy Movie. NAKED SHORT SELLING EXPOSED. Free Online With Permission of Owner - Producer
Dr Yuval Noah Harari is a transhumanist and top advisor to WEF Klaus Schwab. He said, "In the past many tyrants and governments wanted to do it. But nobody understood biology well enough and nobody had enough computing power and data to hack millions of people. Neither the gestapo nor the KGB could do it. But soon at least some corporations and governments will be able to systematically hack ALL THE PEOPLE. NWO depopulation eugenics agenda happening now.
Out of Shadows Documentary
I've been asked many times if I still track the stock market. My answer is a resounding yes. The stock market is in my blood. I'm still tracking the markets, still doing research and still following economic news. This is the one industry that is the heart of global productivity. It is essential in pumping the necessary oxygen (capital) to corporations that in turn hire employees who will in turn produce the products and services that we all use. Capitalism is a very very important element to humanity. It is what fuels dreams, self-reliance and individualism!
T.E.A.= TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY! I am an INDEPENDENT/CENTRIST Former Democrat for 20 years
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