ABSTRACT
Morality so pervades psychiatry that every chapter in a psychiatric textbook will embrace moral issues either implicitly or explicitly. The early stages of ‘racial purification’ involved the compulsory sterilization and killing of psychiatric patients, before proceeding to the killing of Jews. In May 2005 the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law adopted its latest version of Ethics Guidelines for the Practice of Forensic Psychiatry. The chapter argues that psychiatrists who practise forensic psychiatry are bound by the same moral obligations as any other psychiatrist, including practising competently, being honest, respecting others, maintaining confidentiality to the extent possible. The position of many psychiatrists on the assessment and treatment of personality disorder is perhaps reflective of the problem. Modern psychiatric care is multi-professional, and forensic psychiatric care is generally multi-agency at least at some stages of treatment. The judge considered her dangerous and passed a sentence of imprisonment, unaware of the psychiatric background.
