Surreptitious Drug Administration: Collective Decision Making Over Riding Personal Autonomy

Abstract

A quaint problem indeed. This is an issue where ethical and practical management issues lock horns. An individual with no insight on a rampage, a threat to self and others cannot be given medicines without consent except in an indoor facility and admitted under a specific provision of the current statute. Contrary to the law, the mental health policy envisages community care of the individual. For a time defined interval, surreptitious medication can be administered providing much needed relief to the caregivers and calms the recipient. Surreptitious medication can of course be an instrument of control and hence would necessitate a system of checks and balances. Surreptitious medication tests legal and ethical boundaries. It offers relief to caregivers but can be an instrument of abuse. The act of administering a drug without the individual's consent is prima facie wrong but if the context is woven in, a whole new dimension arises.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.