> The problem is that there is no perfect treatment for severe mental illness. We cannot cure it. Many of these drugs have major and serious side effects, which is why so many people stop taking them.
> So the only question then is what will you do with these people? Do you let them continue to deteriorate under their own agency to the point where they become violent? That's not humane to their (inevitable) victims. Do you commit them involuntarily? That's not humane to the patient themselves.
> Unfortunately, someone's human rights are going to be trampled in this scenario, the only question is whose.
It's true that we don't have perfect cures for many mental illnesses, but as a society we aren't even treating mental illnesses close to the best of our abilities. I'm not ready to give up treating mental illnesses and start trampling human rights when we haven't even tried giving people effective and affordable healthcare.
There's a narrative that we're trying to help people and they're not accepting help, and that's possibly true in a minority of cases, but in the vast majority of cases our society is just not doing anything for people that could reasonably be expected to work, and then we're blaming them for it.