Image of Psychiatric Patients’ Competency to Give Informed Consent to Treatment in Japan

The right of individuals to exercise control over matters related to their ownbody is manifest in the practice of informed consent in Western medicine (Ap-pelbaum & Grisso, 1988; Miller, 1994; Weisbard, 1986). According to the doc-trine of informed consent, competent individuals have the right to make rightand “wrong” decisions within the framework of their own value system. Thus,no physician should commence a treatment (or other medical procedure) un-less the patient gives consent. However, physicians cannot claim that theyhave obtained the valid consent of a patient unless: (a) necessary medical in