While the role of the law is to maintain order and achieve justice, often times, such as in cases involving mental illness, the operation of justice can involve ethical, legal, social, and medical issues which creates arguments about the balance of rights relating to effective treatment and lack of insight. Many of these issues arise when the subject of involuntary detention and treatment of mentally ill persons is discussed.
Mentally ill people suffer from some of the greatest challenges of any socially disadvantaged groups, which is partially due to overlap with other groups, but largely due to problems specific to the mentally ill. This includes prejudice from the public resulting in stigmatisation. Stigmatisation of mental illness leads to the propagation of myths and falsehoods, such as the widely held view that mentally ill persons…