> >I know people like this myself and it's not an easy thing for > >anybody to address. The afflicted have sufficient faculties to > >refuse care that is good for them and society and the legal rights > >to enforce such a refusal. Often the only thing they will let you > >do is give them money to piss away. > > This is a bunch of reactionary crap. My brother was diagnosed chronic schizo when he was 20. Now he's 45. He's been living with his mother, unable to hold a job or take elementary care of himself. In front of a judge, he's as lucid as Socrates. Other times he talks incessantly about the Mafia, the FBI, and the CIA conspiring against him. He writes poetry. He can't be committed. He would only consent to live in a country club-type facility that indulged his every want, which my family can't come close to affording. So he's basically ruined my mother's life. I wouldn't tolerate his behavior and let him ruin mine, in which case he would probably end up on the street. The only fix for this is coercive confinement, which we wish would be generously funded by society, but we know probably would not be. In any case, it's irrelevant because such confinement is illegal. I know what I'm talking about, here if nowhere else. Cheers, MBS =================================================== Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1660 L Street, NW 202-775-8810 (voice) Ste. 1200 202-775-0819 (fax) Washington, DC 20036 http://epn.org/sawicky Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone associated with the Economic Policy Institute other than this writer. ===================================================
