In addition to understanding in the basic factual sense alluded to above, most writers on capacity agree that subjects must also have some appreciation of the nature and significance of the decision that they are faced with (Grisso & Appelbaum 1998: 42–52). The facts, and the implications of those facts for the subject’s life, must mean something to the subject. The most minimal way of interpreting this requirement is to see it as requiring that the subject not only grasp information but gen