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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