Scott Starson has battled schizo-affective disorder for years. Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that he had the right to refuse drugs that doctors wanted to give him for his mental illness, turning him into a 'poster child' for the cause. Today, he is being treated, against his will, at the ROH's Brockville facility, still battling his disease -- and the people who want to help him.
| Juliet O'Neill and Doug Fischer | |
| The Ottawa Citizen |
(Continued from previous page)
Over the last two years, the right-to-refuse poster of Scott Starson has faded and frayed.
"What he has almost become a symbol of is someone who's going to die for lack of treatment," says lawyer Daphne Jarvis, who was legal counsel to the Schizophrenia Society of Canada when it intervened in the Supreme Court case. The society represented families who act as substitute decision-makers when ill loved ones are deemed incapable. Last February, the Consent and Capacity Board again deemed Mr. Starson incapable of deciding on treatment. This time, Mr. Starson's appeal in court failed. He had not submitted a factum by deadline. Ms. Szigeti publicly questioned the legality of those proceedings, as no lawyer was present for Mr. Starson at the board hearing. But she has taken no further action in court so far.
Ms. Jarvis is among those relieved he is on medication. She said the Supreme Court ruling had given birth to an "unfortunate myth" among some patients, families and health-care practitioners that there is no point in going to the Consent and Capacity Board if someone is refusing treatment.
"It made people think, 'This loved one of mine is very ill, but he's refusing treatment; well, there's nothing we can do, because as sick as Mr. Starson was, the court upheld his right to refuse.'"
That is simply not true, Ms. Jarvis said. The court did not change the Health Care Consent Act or even make the process more difficult, Ms. Jarvis says.
What the court majority ruled was that the Consent and Capacity board in 1999 did not have enough evidence to support its finding that Mr. Starson was incapable of deciding on treatment. Nor was there evidence from psychiatrists that their drug treatment plan would work. Most importantly, the board had erroneously based its ruling on "the best interests" of the patient when it is supposed to stick to determining the patient's capacity. "The wisdom of the respondent's treatment decision is irrelevant to that determination," the court ruled.
Joaquim Zukerberg, legal counsel to the Consent and Capacity Board, agrees the Supreme Court did not make new law. But he says it clarified the law. "It probably made our work easier," he said. "The board has been very careful when making a decision to state that we're not here to decide what the best interests of the patient are."
Who is to decide? "The substitute decision-maker," he said.
Board rulings are not carved in stone forever. Because an ill person's capacity can deteriorate or improve, new drugs are developed and other circumstances change, he said, the board can always re-examine a patient's capacity.
In a corridor conversation with a Citizen reporter at the hospital last week, Mr. Starson declined to say why he had stopped eating and drinking, but promised to disclose the reasons to a "category -- a good category" of people when he is free. He mentioned, as he always does, how he wants to get back to his scientific work. When asked about being forced on medication, Mr. Starson said he was not resisting. "It's in my interests," he said.
Ms. Jarvis has a fervent hope: "I may be dreaming in Technicolor, but I do imagine that some day Starson may turn around and look at us and ask, 'What took you so long?'"
Scott Starson's Story
- Born Friday the 13th, 1956, in Brooklyn, New York, son of Jeanne and Howard Schutzman, a trumpeter in the Marine Corps Band. Able to read by age 3.
- Moves to Toronto in 1969 with his younger brother, Brad, and their mother, Jeanne, now divorced. A bright student, he skips grades 8 and 13, and enters George Harvey Technical High School and then Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
- Graduates in 1976 from Ryerson with a diploma in electronics technology and is immediately hired by GenRad, a Boston-based electronics company. Highly prized for his technical talents and charismatic sales skills, he becomes the company's top salesman in North America.
- In 1985, his family, friends and colleagues are worried and frightened by his strange behaviour and by signs that he is not taking care of himself. When a friend calls police for help when he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, he is admitted to the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.
- From 1988 through 1992 he is arrested nine times and charged with 22 offences of uttering threats, causing a disturbance, harassing phone calls and failing to appear in court. He is committed to psychiatric institutions by court order.
- In 1989, chemistry professor Geoffrey Hunter, of York University, reads the manuscript of his book, Thought For Food, and tells him in a letter that he is a natural scientist. He also tells Mr. Starson that his psychiatric care seems to have helped him. In 1991, physicist Pierre Noyes finds Mr. Starson's ideas intriguing and incorporates one into a scientific paper.
- On release from the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital in 1992, he begins stalking Joan Rivers, to whom he believes he is married, and drives to New York to meet her at a book launch. His mother alerts security and he is detained and committed to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital. This begins a five-year odyssey in U.S. mental institutions.
- In 1993, feeling connected to the cosmos, he legally changes his family name to Starson, son of the stars.
- In 1998, he is arrested for making death threats to fellow residents of a Toronto townhouse and threatens to kill the police officer who transports him to jail. He is ordered detained for one year and admitted to the Toronto Mental Health Centre. He has been in detention ever since.
- Jan. 20, 1999. The Ontario Consent and Capacity Board deems him incapable of making a treatment decision and upholds a decision by psychiatrists at the Toronto centre to treat him with anti-psychotic drugs and mood stabilizers. He has refused on grounds the drugs slow his brain. He appeals.
- Nov. 26, 1999. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice overturns the board decision, saying a decision to force drugs on an unwilling person "has very serious consequences and should only be made on cogent and compelling evidence." The doctors appeal.
- June 14, 2001. The Ontario Court of Appeal dismisses the doctors' appeal, saying the board's finding that Mr. Starson was incapable was not amply supported by evidence and analysis. The doctors appeal again.
- June 6, 2003. The Supreme Court of Canada dismisses the doctors' appeal. In a 6-3 ruling, the court upholds Mr. Starson's right to refuse. The chief justice is among dissenters from the ruling.
- Feb. 16, 2005. The Consent and Capacity Board issues a new ruling that Mr. Starson is not capable of making a treatment decision. Doctors are given permission to use "anti-psychotic medications to treat schizo-affective psychosis."
- May 11, 2005. Ontario Superior Court dismisses Mr. Starson's appeal as he did not meet a deadline, which had already been extended, to submit a factum. Doctors inject him with the anti-psychotic drug Haldol.
- June 2, 2005. An Ontario Review Board panel assembles at the hospital for their annual hearing into Mr. Starson's detention. The hearing is adjourned until Aug. 17 because his lawyer needs more time.
613-797-3237 (613-797-DADS)
Ottawa Men's Centre