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- Title
Vaccination Decision Making of Involuntarily Committed Psychiatric Patients: A Clinical Case Series.
- Authors
Cheema, Amal; Hinck, John; Fetter, Jeffrey; Nelson, William A.
- Abstract
Involuntary civil commitment and treatment of patients with severe mental illness pose significant ethical questions when guardians of these patients authorize COVID-19 vaccination. Legally, involuntary commitment for psychiatric illness curtails personal rights to a degree that is rare outside the criminal justice system, so that a patient may receive treatment for a mental illness that poses putative danger to self or others. Once dangerousness is established to justify involuntary commit-ment, comes the question of treatment and care for severe mental illness and to what extent is medical intervention justified given the context of care. To illustrate the role of ethics committees, we present three chronological case studies to illuminate ethical issues arising from guardian-approved COVID-19 vaccination of involuntarily committed patients. Despite the benefit of the guardian's consent, patients may not assent to vaccination. Thus, these chronological cases explore whether psychiatric hospitals ought to vaccinate their inpatients against COVID-19 without assent, and how should they do so ethically, when civil liberties are already curtailed.
- Subjects
VACCINATION; NURSES' attitudes; COVID-19 vaccines; ETHICAL decision making; ATTITUDE (Psychology); ETHICS committees; SCHIZOAFFECTIVE disorders; INVOLUNTARY hospitalization; INVOLUNTARY treatment; INFORMED consent (Medical law); PATIENTS' attitudes; GUARDIAN &; ward; PATIENT-family relations; DECISION making; DECISION making in clinical medicine; PSYCHIATRIC hospitals; DECEPTION
- Publication
Journal of Hospital Ethics, 2023, Vol 9, Issue 3, p43
- ISSN
1938-4955
- Publication type
Article