A Jurisprudence in Disarray: On Battery, Wrongful Living, and the Right to Bodily Integrity

Abstract

Courts and commentators sometimes suggest that there is no need to recognize a cause of action for wrongful living-the individual can bring an action for battery if she has received medical treatment against her will. However, courts have tended to refuse to apply the protections currently existing within the law in this context and thus have helped to mute or negate the very protections that have been trumpeted as so important. Until the existing safeguards are respected or new protections are created, one can only expect to continue to see reports of the widespread provision of unwanted treatment.