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Can the Mentally Ill Refuse Treatment? Can the Mentally Ill Refuse Treatment?
In an article for the USA Today, writer Laura Parker ...
... Defendants lose certain constitutional protections (such as the right to refuse
antipsychotic medication) in ... A mentally ill death row inmate can only be ...
... or her mental illness or if the person thinks that he or she can deal with the symptoms
on their own the mentally ill person has the right to refuse treatment. ...
... rights of minorities, one of which is the mentally ill. ... Can the state hospitalize
patients against their own ... Do patients have the right to refuse treatment? ...
... (LaFond, 30) Many of the mentally ill simply shun ... between reality and fiction, so
how can they be ... people are given the opportunity to refuse needed treatment ...
Submitted by princessil0523 on November 10, 2005
Category: Psychology
Words: 4093 | Pages: 17
Views: 808
Popularity Rank: 8,161
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Can the Mentally Ill Refuse Treatment?
In an article for the USA Today, writer Laura Parker quoted E. Fuller Torrey, the head psychiatrist at the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, VA, “’You can create the most beautiful treatment situation in the downtown Hilton Hotel and give out free coffee and free cigarettes but people will not accept medication if they don’t think they’re sick,’ […]‘That’s why people with severe mental illness must be treated involuntarily’” (A1). Most of the time, treatment is not performed involuntarily on the severely mentally ill (see Glossary). The mentally ill fight that they have rights and forcing treatment on them when they do not want it breaks those rights. They have gone all the way to the Supreme Court fighting for their rights. It does not seem right that those who cannot help themselves would not graciously accept help from somebody who could potentially save them.
History has a large effect on the bad reputation that involuntary treatment has earned. In some countries in Europe, up until the 1800’s, the mentally ill were displayed in showcases and bound to the walls in the asylums, and the public was invited to observe their behaviors (Stavis Civil Commitment). Because of the visible mistreatment of the insane in these countries, America’s founders went to the opposite extreme. The insane persons in Colonial America traveled in groups and were treated uniformly without any attempt to separate them from other outcasts or provide them with any help (Stavis Civil Commitment). However, as time moved on, there was realization that something had to be done in this country as it had been done in other countries through out the world to keep the problem of insanity under control. There were no laws to protect the rights and freedom of the insane in both private and public asylums (Weinberger and Markowitz 679). By the middle of the 1800’s, a husband or father was allowed to request that his wife or...
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