Decision-making capacity or mental competence is one of the most intensively discussed concepts in contemporary bioethics and medical ethics. In this paper I argue that anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder primarily afflicting adolescent girls and young women, seriously challenges what I label the traditional account of decision-making capacity. In light of these results, it may in addition be necessary to rethink a certain popular type of paternalistic argumentation that grounds the justification of compulsory treatment, for example of anorexic persons who refuse treatment, on a lack of decision-making capacity.
CITATION STYLE
Martens, A. (2015). Paternalism in Psychiatry: Anorexia Nervosa, Decision-Making Capacity, and Compulsory Treatment. In Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy (Vol. 35, pp. 183–199). Springer Science and Business Media B.V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17960-5_12
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.