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Originally Posted by MBates
I totally agree. The only caveat is to make sure it is informed and open minded questioning. Declaring the decision is wrong just because of how it makes you feel when you don't understand the disease and its treatment and risk factors is still allowed but not helpful. Advocating abandoning the rule of law because the incident was horrific is absolutely not responsible citizenship.
I would unquestionably be safer driving to work if I installed a NASCAR roll cage in my car and wore a fireproof suit and helmet. I am not an outrageous fool for driving with a t-shirt, shorts and a ball cap. And society hasn't given up on protecting public safety by not invoking NASCAR standards in the Traffic Safety Act. We measure and assume risk of death literally every single day. Traffic Safety experts are left to decide which measure we must have and which can be left out. We accept those expert assessments and risk our lives (an educated calculated risk) for the freedom and convenience cars give us.
I just don't see how allowing the experts in mental health to assess the risks in that field and decide what risks we can take and what risks are too much should be treated differently.
And the reality is they do it every day as well. People are in and out of psych assessment under provincial mental health legislation hundreds of times a month I am sure. Often within a 24 hour period and a half hour long interview an expert decides whether a person gets to be unconditionally free to live mentally ill beside you...you just don't know it.
It's all calculated risk with no guarantees. But for some reason when the incident is horrifying all non psychiatrists give themselves an instant PhD and take to the internets to tell everyone how the whole system is in ruins. It's not.
I wonder what the stats are on how many greyhound bus trips have been taken in Canada where no passenger was a victim of any assault whatsoever? Probably millions. If you think the only paranoid schizophrenic who has ever rode on a greyhound was Vince Li you are sadly mistaken.
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Driving requires you pass multiple tests and maintain the rules and regulations of the road throughout the duration of your driving career , if you decide to not obey these rules your license will eventually be taken away. Some of the reasons you may lose your license could be choice, like speeding to often or to high a rate of speed or drunk driving etc. Some may be for physical reasons like blindness or old age no fault of your own but damn man you can't be on the road. It's a privilege not a right and it comes with rules and regulations before you have done anything to prove you shouldn't be driving. He has proven under the right circumstances he is a danger to society. I can choose to not drive I can't stop him from being my neighbor.