Umm, yes, I think the mentally ill should be able to go through life without being stuck in psych wards having meds forced upon them. My son would be in pretty bad shape if I had to live in a nuthouse rather than being at home being a mother to him.
Millions of people (In the USA it is something like 1 in every 4 people) have a diagnosed mental illness and are
never a danger to others. 2.2 million people in America have
Schizophrenia alone. (
http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm). How many do
you know that are violent? What
I find to be
disturbing is your mind-set in regard to the mentally ill and their human rights!
It is a myth built on ignorance, misconception and disgusting stereotyping that the mentally ill are more dangerous than the rest of society. Something is wrong with a society that expects our mental health policies to be built around the small number of mentally ill who are a danger. Perhaps we should medicate and lock up blonde women because some other blondes are murderers,
Just in case?
Hell, why your at it, why not suggest we treat all of the mentally ill to lobotomies and shock treatment because Andrea Yates murdered her children. Goodness, we can't take the chance of something like that happening again, let's just turn 'em all into zombies! LOOK at the number of women who have murdered their children and then look at how many of them had a documented mental illness. There are far more "normal" mothers that kill than there are mentally ill ones. Same goes for other violent crimes... there are far more "normal" people serving time for violence than mentally ill ones. Only a very small sub-group of the mentally ill are
ever a danger to others. We are far more dangerous to ourselves than to anyone else!
Now, if a person with a mental illness also happens to be a
danger to society, of course they should be locked up!