Right to Refuse Antipsychotic Drug Treatment and the Supreme Court: Washington v. Harper, The
![handle is hein.journals/buflr40 and id is 277 raw text is: The Right to Refuse Antipsychotic Drug
Treatment and the Supreme Court:
Washington v. Harper
JEANNETTE BRIAN*
The makers of our Constitution... conferred, as against the Government,
the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right
most valued by civilized men.
Justice Brandeis'
I. INTRODUCTION
On February 27, 1990, the United States Supreme Court granted
patients in state mental institutions the constitutional right to refuse
treatment with antipsychotic drugs.' That right, announced by the
Court in Washington v. Harper,3 was grounded in the Due Process
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and accorded patients a constitu-
tionally protected liberty interest in avoiding unwanted antipsychotic
medication.
The announcement of the Court's decision appeared to be good
news for the more than 343,000 individuals admitted to the inpatient
services of state-operated psychiatric hospitals nationwide. Their right
to refuse treatment with antipsychotic drugs was extensively litigated in
* J.D. Candidate, SUNY at Buffalo Law School, May 1992.
1. Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).
2. The terms antipsychotic, psychotropic, and neuroleptic are used interchangeably to
refer to medication used to treat thought disorders such as schizophrenia. Amicus Curiae Brief of
the American Psychological Association in Support of Respondent at 2-3 n.1, Washington v.
Harper, 110 S. Ct. 1028 (1990) (No. 88-599) [hereinafter Brief of the American Psychological Ass'n].
The major antipsychotic drugs include Haldol, Mellaril, Navane, Compazine, Prolixin, and
Thorazine. Brief for the American Psychiatric Association and the Washington State Psychiatric
Association as Amici Curiae at 6 n.l, Washington v. Harper, 110 S. Ct. 1028 (1990) (No. 88-599)
[hereinafter Brief of the American Psychiatric Ass'n].
3. Washington v. Harper, 110 S. Ct. 1028 (1990).
4. In 1983, an estimated 343,774 individuals were admitted to state and county psychiatric hos-
pitals nationwide, as reported in the Amicus Curiae Brief of the New Jersey Department of the
Public Advocate at 12 n.6, Harper (No. 88-599) (citing a National Institute of Mental Health study,
titled State and County Mental Hospitals, United States, 1982-83 and 1983-84, National Institute of
Mental Health, DHHS Publication No. (ADM 86-1478) at 3 (1986)).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/buflr40&div=12&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Right to Refuse Antipsychotic Drug Treatment and the Supreme Court: Washington v. Harper, The
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