The Due Process Rights of Minors “Voluntarily Admitted” to Mental Institutions

Abstract

Last year in Bartley v. Kremens, a case now pending before the Supreme Court, a Pennsylvania three-judge court required that all children, before admission by their parents to state mental hospitals, receive a full-blown due process hearing as protection against parental abuse. The following article takes a critical look at the Bartley court's belief that traditional adversary procedures, essentially modeled after the criminal system, can provide a panacea for children in the mental health area. In outlining a proposal to protect the legal rights of juveniles and at the same time ensure prompt and efficient attention to serious mental problems, the article recognizes that interdisciplinary cooperation is mandatory and that decisionmaking must be shared by the medical and the legal professions.