The Right to Refuse Treatment



The Right to Refuse Treatment

Thesis Statement

The right to refuse treatment is the right that competent adults have in health care to determine what it happens

Introduction

Current law allows people with schizophrenia to refuse treatment unless they present an immediate danger to themselves or others, Aimee Howd notes in the following selection. Therefore, she writes, such persons are permitted to wander the streets engaging in bizarre behavior that can easily become threatening. Critics of this policy contend that people with schizophrenia are unable to recognize that they need treatment, she explains, and advocate changes to the laws that would make it easier to treat them against their will. On the other hand, Howd relates, civil libertarians oppose such proposals as threats to the rights of individuals to make their own decisions. Balancing public safety versus the rights of mentally ill individuals to be free of coercion is an ongoing challenge and a source of much controversy, according to the author. Howd writes for Insight, a weekly newsmagazine.

Discussion

A paranoid schizophrenic with violent tendencies was listed "critically missing" from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., for two months in the summer of 1998. A young Park Police officer found him on the street and returned him to the hospital. Despite the patient's status and despite the fact that the officer was taking time from his duties to help, hospital officials said the patient couldn't be admitted. Rather than leave him on the street, the officer spent 16 hours completing the paperwork to have him recommitted. Twenty-four hours later, the officer saw the violent man wandering the neighborhood again, released after a meeting with his caseworker.

In the shadow of the White House, the young officer slouches back on his patrol bike, shaking his head with frustration after telling this story that ...