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With the Act of 4 March 2002 on the rights of patients and the quality of the healthcare system, the Act of 11 February 2005 on the rights of people with disabilities, and the Act of 5 March 2007 reforming the legal protection of adults, French society has a strong legal framework for supporting people who have become particularly vulnerable owing to their health. Striving towards the best possible expression of capacities and will, the objective at all times is to foster and respect an individual’s decision-making autonomy. Yet demographic, social and economic changes are revealing a number of inconsistencies in the effective implementation of rights and breeding discontent on the part of professionals, families, caregivers and even the population as a whole. This is chiefly because the responses to what are sometimes extremely delicate situations are often unsuitable, overly long and overly divided, and may even constitute maltreatment. Urgent action needs to be taken to structure intervention on the basis of fundamental rights and people’s needs and to put a stop to the excessive compartmentalisation of healthcare, social support and protection systems. At a time when France has initiated a real discussion on the adaptation of society to ageing and with the state of health of the elderly calling for particular attention so as to avoid any potential abuses, we need to develop pluridisciplinary reflexes and better organised collaborative work under the watchful eye of a “new judge” guaranteeing the respect of individual freedoms and operating within its rightful scope.