One right too many.

For all too many years, few people gave much thought to the civil rights of hospitalized mental patients. More recently, fortunately, that situation has largely changed. The right to treatment, involuntary hospitalization, and 1I0W the right to refuse treatment, are among the issues which are predominant. The ofttimes delicate balance may not always be resolved in favor of the patient's needs, a situatiOIl which may well occur with reference to the right to refuse treatment. It is my thesis that this right cannot be of benefit to the involuntarily hospitalized psychiatric patient. When rights are not consonant with needs, they lose much of their value.