Courts, State Hospitals, and the Right to Treatment
JONAS ROBITSCHER J.D., M.D.1
1 Henry R. Luce Professor of Law and the Behavioral Sciences, Emory University Schools of Law and Medicine, Atlanta, Ga. 30322
The author discusses the court decisions revolving around the right to treatment that have culminated in a new legal doctrine holding courts responsible for maintaining state hospital standards. To deal with the resulting dilemma, psychiatry must develop objective standards that the court can apply in measuring psychiatric care and thus prevent the legal determination of treatment adequacy from usurping psychiatric authority and determining hospital policy.
