Section 47
SIR,—I must thank your correspondent for correcting me on matters of fact, but I must join issue with him on the question of principle. I cannot believe a country that has rejected compulsory vaccination will for long accept the compulsory medical treatment that he envisages. For my own part I would prefer not to deal with any patient that did not seek my advice of his own free will, knowing as I do that treatment without co-operation is unlikely to be useful ; and if, when I am old, I lose faith in the therapeutic fashions prevailing at the time, and wish to die in my own house, I do not think that the Medical Officer of Health should have the power to confine me in hospital without any case being heard. We used to be taught that to examine or treat a patient against his will constituted an assault in law, but I take it that Section 47 in some manner removes this difficulty. In conclusion, Sir, may I repeat that compulsory medical treatment, a necessary evil in prisons and asylums, has, to my mind, no place in a general hospital.—
Previous page
