[DataWorker]

You can imagine how that’s an artifact of a more socialized health system. Perhaps unintentionally, it would function in many ways as a cost saving feature that would be very difficult to implement in the US system. Think about junkies. Can they be involuntarily committed because their condition would “otherwise worsen”? Imagine the legal implications in a system where hmo and insurers get to influence the decision about who is committed.

[DuskStar]

Or imagine a woman who has children out of wedlock, causing financial distress. Obviously, if she's not institutionalized she'll continue to have children out of wedlock, which will cause her condition to worsen.

And only a mentally ill person would have children out of wedlock, right?

And before you say that that's unrealistic... I'm pretty sure that that exact logic was used to institutionalize people in the US back in the 20s and 30s.