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A comment on It's Time to Mandate Treatment of the Dangerously Mentally Ill. Parent comment

Re:It's Time to Mandate Treatment of the Dangerously Mentall... by generalizations on Thursday October 06, 2022 @12:37PM (#33110503)
Yeah, but there you come out the other end with your mind intact. These forcibly prescribed treatments have side effects that can do irreversible damage. Can't get that appeal hearing if you can't think straight anymore.
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Re:It's Time to Mandate Treatment of the Dangerously Mentall... by DoughnutHole on Thursday October 06, 2022 @12:48PM (#33110694)
Agreed, it's basically the same argument as against the death penalty. Can't exonerate yourself if you're dead, can't be found mentally sound if you've been effectively lobotomized.

Obviously psychiatry has come a long way since lobotomy, but it doesn't have a great history when it comes to treating unwilling patients.

If a mentally unwell person is a demonstrated threat (ie commits crimes and harms/endangers people) the state already has the power to lock them up. In my view letting the state forcibly alter their brain and mind against their will is a bridge too far.

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Re:It's Time to Mandate Treatment of the Dangerously Mentall... by denton-scratch on Thursday October 06, 2022 @02:28PM (#33112073)
> In my view letting the state forcibly alter their brain and mind against their will is a bridge too far.

I don't share your view. It's quite clear to me that there are circumstances when a mentally-ill person benefits enormously from compulsory treatment (provided they are released; a system that rewards clinics financially for continuing to detain patients that are fit for release is a special kind of madness).

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Re:It's Time to Mandate Treatment of the Dangerously Mentall... by arrosenberg on Thursday October 06, 2022 @12:41PM (#33110581)
Highly debatable that regular prison leaves your mind intact.
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Re:It's Time to Mandate Treatment of the Dangerously Mentall... by giantg2 on Thursday October 06, 2022 @12:46PM (#33110670)
Very true. Although the scope is quite different between the conditioning you face in a prison and the chemical alteration of various medications. Generally, one can be resisted or controlled, whole the other cannot.
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