Document Type
Notes
Abstract
O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563 (1975).
A constitutionally based right to treatment for the civilly confined mental patient is now in its formative stage. Dr. Birnbaum in his seminal article was the first to suggest that the right to treatment had constitutional bases. The first member of the judiciary to suggest that the right to treatment had roots in either the eighth amendment, the equal protection clause or the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment was Judge Bazelon' in Rouse v. Cameron. Bazelon's dicta touched off a wave of scholarly commentary' but received limited judicial recognition until recently. It was the due process clause that emerged as the prime candidate for establishing a substantive constitutional basis for this asserted right.
Recommended Citation
Sposaro, Anthony J.
(1976)
"Civil Commitment: Is There a Constitutionally Based Right to Treatment,"
University of Dayton Law Review: Vol. 1:
No.
2, Article 7.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udlr/vol1/iss2/7
Publication Date
May 1976
