Covert Treatment in a Cross-Cultural Setting

Abstract

AbstractValue-based medicine recognises the legitimacy of value differences. These may be associated with differences amongst individuals’ values or cultural differences. The latter arise in the case discussed here where the parents of a young man who hale from India discuss covert treatment with a psychiatrist (who is also from India). As the young man has decision-making capacity, and the case takes place in the UK, this is not a legal option. But it is possible that it might have been acceptable in India. However, transcultural analyses of cultural differences call attention to the internal variety of cultures, and this is explored in this case. It is suggested that judgements about capacity may contain judgements about whether a person’s choices are unacceptably harmful to them.