"Peter HK" wrote in message
...

"Duncan Heenan" wrote in message
...


Society's moral judgements are reflected in the law. There is no law
against unqualified people sailing boats, there is one regarding people
who drive cars, who have to be licensed and medically fit. Your example
is a poor one

Here there are requirements for boat licences that do require
competency/medical fitness exactly like car licences. Thus the analogy is
apt.

In that case the question is self answering - if he can get a licence he can
go, if he can't he can't.

because the demented man driving the car was doing so illegally. Society
has, by not requiring sailors to take tests, ruled that anyone can go
sailing on their own decision alone.

See above.

Relying on a doctor to decide on what
you should or should not do is rather like letting the motor mechanic
decide where you should drive your car to. I can see no reason to give
any more credence to a doctor's moral views than anyone else's, lest of
all the 'patient', especially when the patient doesn't even feel ill.


I wasn't discussing "moral" views rather medicolegal issues. There are
Laws- which you seem to accept as a basis for society according to your
first sentence- dealing with mental capacity, substituted decision making
etc. I have to work within that framework.

Peter HK

And not detaining people against their will is part of the legal framework.