Unsound Minds

I fail to understand why people with impaired judgment are allowed to make their own decisions about medical treatment. We protect children from their own immaturity regarding medical treatment: "No, Mommy, I don't want to take the icky medicine" just doesn't cut it. Why then, do we allow people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia to reject proven medical treatment? I'm not talking about electric shock or lobotomies--I'm referring to pills that can be washed down with water.

I read a story in the WSJ this morning about a man named William Bruce, who has paranoid schizophrenia. Two months after he had been released from a mental hospital (against the recommendation of his doctors), he killed his mother. His release was orchestrated by "patient advocates," who coached him on what to say to the doctors, encouraged him to reject treatment, and advised him to refuse consent for his doctors to communicate with his parents. Back home again, William Bruce collected knives in his room, paced the driveway, and whacked Mom in the back of the head with an axe.

Returned to the mental heath facility, he finally started taking an anti-psychotic drug. His mental state has improved enough that he realizes he made the wrong decisions all along the line, but who can blame him? He was--well--crazy, and he should have been cared for and treated with the best medicine has to offer rather than led by the nose by "patient advocates" with their own agendas.

This story hits Fiorella close to home. Youngest nephew is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. His mother never wanted him to take medicine because of the side effects and because, even after he attacked her with the butcher knife, she wasn't sure how to define crazy: "maybe he's the one who is sane and we're all insane," she mused.

But then she also couldn't understand why some girl , since he was so good-looking, hadn't "snapped him up long ago." Fiorella thought it might have something to do with him hearing voices from mailboxes.

Back to the story, Nephew was physically restrained before he could knife his mother, who has since died of natural causes. So now Nephew roams free across Austin, still unmedicated, still hearing voices from mailboxes.

If Aunt Fio had her way, she would have medicated him long ago, forcibly if necessary. He has no good judgment. He is a danger to himself and others. He is a wasted life. He needs help. He needs someone else to make his medication decisions for him.