Rogers v. Okin was a landmark case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit considered whether a person diagnosed with mental illness committed to a state psychiatric facility and assumed to be competent, has the right to make treatment decisions in non-emergency conditions.
The court disagreed with the trial judge that forcible medication, absent an emergency, could be administered only after an adjudication of incompetence.
[3] The American Psychological Association submitted a brief supporting the plaintiffs to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
This determination was to be made on the basis of "substituted judgment", that is, on an estimation of what the patient would have desired, were he competent.
[4] This decision was one of the first that contributed to a growing body of case law recognizing that prisoners and competent mental patients have the right to refuse treatment.