ABSTRACT
Forensic psychiatry operates at the interface of two disparate disciplines-law and psychiatry-with diering objectives, philosophies, values, approaches, and methods. Psychiatry, a branch of medicine, endeavors to improve mental health and to help patients. Historically, Hippocratic physicians saw their duties primarily to individual patients. However, the responsibilities of physicians both ethically and legally have been extended in modern times to society as a whole. Medical ethics incorporates deontological (adherence to duties), utilitarian or consequentialist, and virtue ethics. In contrast, the law operates with justice, retribution, containment, and deterrence as its goals. Dilemmas can occur when ethical and legal considerations conict and some ethical values may be compromised.
