Substituted Judgment: The Parens Patriae Justification for Involuntary Treatment of the Mentally Ill
Document Type
Article
Publication
The Journal of Psychiatry & Law
Year
1980
Citation Information
Marianne Wesson, Substituted Judgment: The Parens Patriae Justification for Involuntary Treatment of the Mentally Ill, 2 J. Psychiatry & L. 147 (1980), available at https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/jpsych8&i=155.
Abstract
Civil commitment and forced treatment are often defended by the claim that a benevolent government can exercise "substituted judgment" to supersede the impaired decisionmaking processes of the mentally ill. This article argues that the claim is tenable, but only if its proponents provide satisfactory answers to two questions: First, how should we define the kind of incompetence that makes an individual a proper subject for substituted judgment? Second, is there a necessary relationship between such incompetence and mental illness?
Copyright Statement
Copyright protected. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.