<< Now, a person who has a drug addiction (provided they have the means
to pay for it) can choose to enter a treatment program or not. They
may determine which treatment program and who treats them. These are
important "rights" to maintain.
As for people who have schizophrenia -- here is what usually happens
to them. They have no choice. They get thrown into state mental
hospitals and they get forced by the courts to undergo electroshock
therapy. >>
I despise the "informed consumer" model. we're asked to research tax policy, medicine, land use laws, banking regs, phone companies, ad infinitum, before making a "consumer choice". gag me. there aren't enough hours in the day to be well informed about everything that might benefit us, and in a lot of cases people don't have the background knowledge to even know where to start on the research, though in some sense, the information might be "available".
isn't this what it boils down to? if you (or your family) has the money, there will be a choice of some kind - and you can pay experts to inform you as fully as possible as to your choices and their possible ramifications. but if you don't have the money, you do the research to the best of your ability and takes your chances. and if you are without capacity to do the research yourself, and have no family or friends to help you/advocate for you, you're pretty much screwed a lot of the time, from what I've seen in the medical line. Dependent on the "kindness of strangers," and you know what happened to blanche dubois.
les