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News of the Day ... In Perspective08/1/2006Forced drugging stayed On July 25, a Virginia judge ruled that 16-year-old Abraham Cherrix will not be forced to undergo another round of chemotherapy for Hodgkin�s disease, pending a trial on Aug 16.
The boy has already undergone four rounds of chemotherapy, suffering life-threatening toxicity without achieving a complete remission of the disease. With the support of his parents, he chose to reject further conventional therapy in favor of an alternative treatment offered by a clinic in Mexico.
In another type of forced drugging�of patients alleged to be incompetent based on a psychiatric condition rather than age�the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed that the forced administration of psychotropic drugs is unconstitutional in the case of Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute.
The court held that �in the absence of an emergency, the court may not authorize the state to administer psychotropic drugs to a non-consenting mental patient unless the court determines that the medication is in the best interests of the patient and that no less intrusive alternative treatment is available.� Courts will have to consider safety and effectiveness of the drugs in determining whether they are in the patient�s best interest (Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, http://psychrights.org).
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