Rights of Adult Protected Persons

A guardianship or conservatorship for an adult results in the protected person’s substantial loss of autonomy in decision-making and liberty.  However, the protected person under guardianship or conservatorship keeps all the rights that the court does not give to the guardian or conservator.

Iowa law specifically provides that a protected person under guardianship has the right of communication, visitation, or other interaction with another person if the protected person consents to such communication, visitation, or other interaction.  If the protected person is unable to consent due to a physical or mental condition, the protected person’s consent may be presumed based on the protected person’s relationship with the other person.  Iowa Code section 633.637.  The guardian may place reasonable time, place and manner restrictions upon the communication, visitation and interaction without court approval.  But a guardian cannot prohibit all communication, visitation or interaction without court approval. Iowa Code section 633.635(3)(c). 

In addition, Iowa law provides that the court must make a specific finding before a protected person loses the right to vote, the right to make a will, the right to marry and the right to have children.  See Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council, Guardianship and Conservatorship in Iowa:  Issues in Substitute Decision-Making (Jan. 2020), at p. 50.