O The purpose of this article is to deal with the possibility – or not – of a mental or intellectual handicap, in accordance with Law No 13.146/15 (‘Statute for a Disabled Person’), validly to marry, since it has put an end to absolute disability, except on grounds of age. In order to reach a consistent conclusion, it is necessary to analyse historically the roles of autonomy of will, private autonomy and existential autonomy, a category introduced by the Statute into the Brazilian legal system. She deals with the freedom of the person from his or her body, with a view to the principle of human dignity laid down in the 1988 Constitution. As a result, the absolutely incapacitated person would be able to marry independently of his free and spontaneous consent. The New York Convention on Disabled Persons, which gave rise to the Statute, does not, however, provide for marriage for persons who are absolutely incapable. On the contrary, for the purposes of marriage, it requires the free and informed consent of the individual. The authors used the literature review method for the development of the text.