Psychiatrists debated forced treatment at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in May. George Szmukler, a King’s College professor of psychiatry, is quoted by Psychiatric News saying during the session, “In physical disorders, a high value is placed on autonomy, even when there is a high risk of death. But for mental illness, there is a stereotype that people with mental illness are not capable of making decisions about their care.” Szmukler proposed making competency and consent laws uniform across all of medicine: “A single law would apply to all patients for any nonconsensual, involuntary, or facilitated treatment, without reference to mental disorders. It would cover all illnesses in all settings in which the person has difficulty in decision making.”
Coercion and Autonomy Sometimes Collide in Patient-Care Decisions (Psychiatric News, June 16, 2014)