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A Preference For Liberty: The Case Against Involuntary Commitment Of The Mentally Disordered, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

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Compulsory Treatment In Psychiatry: Some Reflections On Self-Determination, Patient Competency And Professional Expertise, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this article the author examines the rationale, in legal and policy terms, of the inextricable association traditionally formed between certification and incompetency. He argues that forming categories of people in which the law automatically dispenses with the requirement of seeking consent is fraught with conceptual inconsistencies and practical difficulties. He further argues that clinical judgments made without the consent of the patient should be made subject to an independent statutory review. Such a review procedure could also be adopted for treatments which are unusually hazardous, irreversible or not fully established even if the doctor purports to proceed with the …

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"A Nursing Home ... Not For My Folks!": Families Caring For Their Elderly At Home, Scott A. Bass, Richard Rowland

Gerontology Faculty Publication Series

This booklet is the second in a series of reports about elderly issues. The first, entitled "The Elderly Have Spoken: Is Anybody Listening? The Impact of Fuel Costs on the Elderly," documented the impact of rising fuel costs on the elderly in Massachusetts. Each of the series reports seeks to capture the actual words, expressions, and feelings of elderly people and their loved ones. For the most part, the interviews were conducted by interviewers who are themselves 60 years old or older. We find that this age match provides greater insight and openness to the problems confronting the …