Treatment without Consent
Subtitle: Law, Psychiatry and the Treatment of Mentally Disordered People since 1845 (Social Ethics and Policy)
Publisher: Routledge
Published: December 15, 1995
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780415077873
First sentence: We are currently in an era, which effectively began in the 1960s, when consent to treatment is probably the central issue both in bioethics, and the growing speciality of medical law.
Description: Phil Fennell's study traces the history of the treatment of mental disorder in Britain over the last 150 years. It focuses specifically on treatment without consent, analysing the provisions of legislation under which it has been authorised. This book examines the range of different forms which treatment interventions have taken: physical and mechanical restraint, seclusion, routine and emergency chemical sedation, force feeding, psychosurgery and shock therapy. Controversial aspects of present-day treatments, like Electro Convulsive Therapy and neuroleptic medication, are examined, and the vexed issue of sterilisation of people with learning disabilities is discussed.

Phil Fennell investigates the way perceptions of consent have changed over the period. He shows how, well into the second half of this century, it was widely believed that relatives could consent to the treatment of a mentally disordered person. This contrasts with present-day statutory and common law rules, and the recommendations of the Law Commission for a new legal regime to cover the treatment of people without mental capacity.