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- Xref: sparky misc.legal:21925 sci.med:23310 rec.arts.tv.soaps:46176
- Path: sparky!uunet!noc.near.net!genrad.com!genrad.com!not-for-mail
- From: djg@phoenix.genrad.com (Deborah J. Graham)
- Newsgroups: misc.legal,sci.med,rec.arts.tv.soaps
- Subject: Question of Legality
- Followup-To: poster
- Date: 29 Dec 1992 13:33:51 -0500
- Organization: GenRad, Inc.
- Lines: 38
- Distribution: na
- Message-ID: <1hq5mfINNgeh@phoenix.genrad.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: phoenix.genrad.com
-
- I have a question. I hope someone can help me.
-
- On a soap recently (please don't get into a discussion on the merits
- of soap watching), a doctor gave a person a drug to calm her down. The
- background is that her husband is gaslighting her and she is sure her
- dead husband is alive. Now, everyone thinks she is crazy. Her current
- husband has an actor call and talk to her to convince her that her
- dead husband is alive. This has been going on for awhile, and now she
- is sure her current husband will kill her and her kids if he finds out
- that she suspect he had anything to do with her dead husband's death.
-
- Her husband told people that he is worried about her, and feels he may
- commit suicide, she's so depressed. At a party, he told people that he
- was takling her and the kids to a remote ski area. She freeked. She
- pulled out a steak knife and warned him that he was not taking her
- anywhere. She ran upstairs. later, a doctor (called by the husband)
- came and when the doctor went to the patient, she was hysterical and
- ranting and raving. She did not want to be calmed down, and she
- specifically said she did not want drugs. The husband told the doctor
- to give his wife the drug to calm her dowm.
-
- The doctor gave her the drugs.
-
- I was wondering if this is legal.
-
- I know - It's Only A Soap...but I have had a discussion about this and
- I was wondering if this could happen in real life. I know EMTs cannot
- give medication if the patient declines or unless they are unconscious
- (I learned this from Emergency! so it may not be true).
-
- Please remember that this is posted in three newsgroups...I'm sure the
- nice people in sci.med don't want to hear about other soaps this has
- happened in.
-
- Thanks for your help.
-
- deb
- (djg@genrad.com)
-