The stigma of "mental" illness: end stage anorexia and treatment refusal.

Objective: To answer the questions of whether psychiatric patients should ever be allowed to refuse life-sustaining treatment in favor of comfort care for a condition that is caused by a psychiatric disorder, and if so, under what conditions.

Method: Case discussion and normative ethical and legal analysis.

Results: We argue that psychiatric patients should sometimes be allowed to refuse life-sustaining treatment in favor of comfort care for a condition that is caused by that psychiatric disorder and articulate the core considerations that should be taken into account when such a case arises.

Law, ethics, and clinical discretion: recurring and emerging issues in adolescent health care.

Varied stakeholders are involved in adolescent health care, with many looking to law to provide clear-cut answers on who can control decisions and when. However, law allows for much clinician discretion, carving out space for contextual sensitivity and clinical determination of maturity. A triad model of decision-making is very often the most appropriate clinical and ethical course.