title: The right to treatment and the right to refuse treatment.
abstract: This paper examines the legal status of the questions of right to treatment of institutionalized patients and of the need for patients' consent to treatment. The history of judicial involvement in these questions is outlined, and the directions and implications of current litigation are discussed.
mesh_terms: D002961:Civil Rights; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D007603:Jurisprudence; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D028701:Patient Rights; D011678:Punishment; D014481:United States