Abstract
This article focuses on one aspect of informed consent: the capacity to give consent. This legal concept has developed from theological, philosophical, and legal perspectives, and is now employed commonly in medical-legal decisions, as exemplified by the recently enacted Mental Health Code of Illinois.
Unfortunately, there is little scientific direction for applying this concept either by the courts or the clinician attempting to obtain informed consent. This article attempts to establish guidelines to assess capacity to consent by developing criteria from a standard psychiatric evaluation and correlating these guidelines with certain existing categories for tests of competency.1
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