This case was a tough one for me to read as my grandma had schizophrenia, so my view point is a little bias. But I put my views aside in order to do research and answer these questions. I believe legally that Joe should not be able to make his own decisions. Having schizophrenia makes Joe incompetent to stand trial (West & Noffsinger, 2016). By Joe proclaiming he is a Mayan God, it’s pretty clear he is probably not in the right state of mind. Joe may not be doing what is in his own best interest. There are precautions put in place so that a mentally ill person is not as likely to face the death penalty (Beynon & Drew, n.d.). With that being said, ethically I believe that any human should have the right and say to their own life. However, if …show more content…
So, in my mind it would be very similar with legal matters. That would make it ethical to keep Joe from making his own choices if he cannot grasp them. Morally, this was very tough for me to decide, while Joe is schizophrenic and should not be making choices for himself from a legal or ethical perspective. Is it okay to stop him morally from making his own decisions regarding his life in prison versus the death penalty? I would say no. I say this only because Joe thinking that he’s a Mayan God does not mean he doesn’t know that he hates being in prison. Ann is Joe’s attorney, she hired Sally who is a social worker because of her limited experience with those diagnosed with mental illness. Ann’s role is to do what is the best interest of Joe from a legal standpoint. Whereas Sally deals with more of the ethical and moral issues. Ann and Sally need to both gather the facts from what they specialize in and then sit down together and go over what will be in Joes best interest. Joe’s life is like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. After doing research it looks like it takes some time before Joe most likely saw a psychiatrist (Puniewska,