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Disabled patients’ wishes ignored

Advocates find disturbing trend

By Peter Schworm

 |  Globe Staff  

  January 22, 2012

The wishes of individuals who are declared mentally incompetent often go unheeded in family court, lawyers and social workers say, costing them control over the most personal decisions. In light of a stunning family court ruling that a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized, mental health specialists say the case, while an extreme example, casts light on a pervasive and often unsettling reality for those deemed unable to make decisions for themselves.

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