Date of Award
1998
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis concentrates on the question of whether or not voluntary, treatment incapable patients who have had their treatment consented to by a substitute decision-maker can be involuntarily treated. It is my opinion that under the current legislative scheme in Ontario the restraint of a voluntary, treatment incapable patient for the purposes of treatment is illegal subject to the following exceptions: (a) a guardianship order exists that contains authority to restrain and detain; or (b) a Power of Attorney for Personal Care has been executed by the now treatment incapable individual authorizing his substitute decision-maker to have him detained and restrained for the purposes of treatment. While some have suggested legislative reform to alleviate the possibility of this situation occurring, I do not endorse this suggestion. Instead, the use of advance directives should be encouraged, as well as the education of the person with the mental illness, family members, friends, health care providers, the legal community and members of the Consent and Capacity Board regarding the powers and limitations of the current legislative scheme.
Recommended Citation
Cindy L. Blancher, A Matter of Balancing: The Inability to Force Treatment on all Voluntary, Treatment-Incapable Patients in Ontario (LLM Thesis, Dalhousie University, 1998) [unpublished].
