CDR: declining sovereignty in the medistate

anonymous at openpgp.net anonymous at openpgp.net
Thu Oct 19 09:45:39 PDT 2000


Oct 19, 2000 - 07:59 AM 

            Court Says Forced Medication
            Allowed in Certain Cases 
            By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
            Associated Press Writer

            COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A mentally ill person involuntarily
            committed to a treatment center can be ordered by a court to
            take anti-psychotic drugs if it is in the patients best interest,
            the state Supreme Court ruled. 

            The unanimous decision said a court also can order
            medication if a patient lacks the capacity to give or withhold
            informed consent regarding treatment, and if a less intrusive
            treatment is unavailable. 

            Before Wednesdays decision, medical personnel could only
            forcibly medicate mentally ill people who posed an immediate
            danger to themselves or others. 

            The court ruled in the case of Jeffrey Steele, who appealed a
            1997 request by the Hamilton County Community Mental
            Health Board to forcibly give him psychotropic or
            mind-altering drugs. 

            "We have attempted to craft a decision that acknowledges a
            persons right to refuse anti-psychotic medication, and yet
            recognizes that mental illness sometimes robs a person of
            the capacity to make informed treatment decisions," Justice
            Andrew Douglas wrote. 

            Steele was judged mentally ill and involuntarily hospitalized in
            August 1997, according to court documents. Seeking a legal
            standard for such cases, his lawyer, Shannon Smith,
            appealed the order to the Supreme Court even though
            Steele voluntarily began taking the drugs in 1998. 

            "Im disappointed in the decision. I am encouraged by the
            fact they took a good hard look at it and now we have a
            standard," Smith said. 







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