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Judging Judgment: Assessing The Competence Of Mental Patients To Refuse Treatment, Grant H. Morris

San Diego Law Review

This Article concerns the due process requirements in determining a mental patient’s competency to make a decision refusing medical treatment. The Author discusses the California decision imposing a judicial hearing requirement and San Diego Superior Court rules for implementing this decision. The Author, a law-trained decision maker in hearings to determine mental patients’ competence to refuse medication, compiled a case report after each of his hearings. He presents and analyzes the data on the competency cases he decided and emphasizes the factors which may have influence his decisions. The Author argues that competency hearings should be conducted by law-trained decision …