Significance
Before this case, although attention had been focused on involuntary commitment standards, it was assumed that once the patient was hospitalized, hospitals could administer psychoactive medication without consulting either the patient or the family. This was the first case in which the focus shifted from standards of commitment to standards of treatment once hospitalized. This was the first of a series of cases that increasingly acknowledged patient rights to refuse treatment and right to least restrictive treatment by way of a variety of First Amendment rights including freedom of religion and thought as well as the ultimate right to privacy, control over one's own body.
However, as this case illustrates, applying the least restrictive principles and working with a patient on medication choices brings up difficult empirical issues in ranking treatment options in accord with constitutional rights.
Read more about this topic: Rennie V. Klein
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