Research On The Protection Of The Rights Of The Patients Of Mental Disease

As the pace of social development quickens, the pressure from career and life increasesand many people have to face mental problems. Among them, patients with mental diseaseare to be a special group. These patients can’t express their interests’ demands because oflacking of the ability to recognize, to understand and to judge. So their condition of living isworrying. In recent years, there are often reports about that mental normal people areintentionally taken to mental hospitals. Besides, the identification of mental diseasesometimes becomes “the license of murder”. All these not only have produced a bad socialeffect but also violated the fundamental rights of humans. As a civilized nation, thegovernment should focus on the patients of mental disease who have been taken to hospitalscontrary to their own will and those who have been wrongly identified as patients of mentaldisease, and take legal measures to defend their rights. However, the present study relevantwith the rights of the patients of mental disease in our country only aims at some kinds oftheir rights or a certain system. In other words, it is short of thorough and deep reflection onthis subject. Therefore, it often ignores the relativity of the protection of rights and thereasonable restrictions of them. What is more, how to balance the rights of the patients ofmental disease and the public interests is just the central point of the discussion on thelegislation of mental health. At the time when the PRC’s law of mental health will be issuedin a short time, I choose this subject on how to protect the rights of the patients of mentaldisease.The introduction of this paper shows the difficulty of the patients of mental disease bythe quotation of statistical data and some classical cases, in order to argue the necessity of theprotection of the rights of these people. Then the first part analyzes the concept of “thepatients of mental disease” for realizing the integration of legal terms and medical ones. Thesecond part justifies the legal protection of the patients of mental disease from two aspects.On the one hand, from the perspective of the equal right of the vulnerable groups, the patientsof mental disease belong to these groups and so should receive more protection according tothe theory of substantive equality. On the other hand, from the perspective of human rights,the rights of the patients of mental disease are not gifted but should be originally enjoyed bythemselves and so that the human rights protection system should be established. The thirdpart’s topic is the problems that appear when the patients of mental disease perform theirrights. Specifically speaking, these rights include the right of personal freedom, the right to privacy, the right to know and agree, the right to employment and the right to education. Thelast part is about the protection and reasonable restriction of rights. On the basis of therelativity of rights and the protection of public interests, it is necessary to limit the rights ofthe patients of mental disease for balancing various kinds of interests. In addition, this part isconcerning the regulations of the draft of PRC’s law of mental health. At last, the authorproposes serious legal amendments after comparing this draft and the law of mental health ofthe district of Taiwan.