| > These people don't have control over their mental faculties; they aren't competent enough to make a choice for what is best for them in the same way that minors aren't allowed to go truant or to consent to sex with an adult. Which people? "Mentally ill" people aren't a homogenous group, and the fact that someone is mentally ill and living on the street does not imply that they are incompetent to make personal decisions due to their mental illness. The relation between mental illness, poverty, physical illness, etc. is complex. There aren't simple answers, and this person isn't these people. > If he was forcefully taken to the hospital, forcefully given medication, and recovered he would exclaim "Thank you for saving me! I had a disease in my brain that lead me to believe in crazy things: to be paranoid of police and even medical personnel. I spent 2 years on the streets suffering like this with no place I believed could help me, but you cured me." Would he? He was medicated, functional from the point of view of the broader society, and living in an apartment and stopped taking his medication. Was it because the medication wasn't the best medical science could identify and he was still incompetent though he would be better off with other medication? Did he accidentally stop taking medication and start a downward spiral where he became out of control? Or was he, as he seemed, competent -- but voluntarily decided to discontinue the medication? > If I had a mental disorder that made me go crazy--so crazy that it doesn't even enter my mind that I need help--I would hope that my government would restore my sanity (as I am unable to do so). And that's great, but its a mistake to project what you think you would want onto other people as their preferences. |
I was referring to patients who lack control over their mental faculties at least to the degree of the man on which the article was written.
> There aren't simple answers, and this person isn't these people.
Yes, this person belongs to the general collective I described above. Clearly when I said "these people" I meant people like the man in the article I was talking about.
> Or was he, as he seemed, competent -- but voluntarily decided to discontinue the medication?
He may have been in the driving seat when he hypothetically decided to stop taking medication, but ultimately he lost control of the wheel. If a person is not taking care of themself and so out of your wits that you stand for hours at road junctions staring blankly forward, they need to be saved. The authorities must assume that though the decision to stop taking medication was voluntary, because the person lost control of their mind, maybe that person's decision was misinformed (or as you suggest, accidental). By analogy, ust because the driver of a car intentionally didn't buckle themselves in (maybe they wanted to die, or like the risk, or were just eccentric), doesn't mean that when they crash and their body flies out, that we shouldn't hospitalise them.
> And that's great, but its a mistake to project what you think you would want onto other people as their preferences.
Actually there is no mistake here: it's a fact that there are other people like me who want this protection from the state.