Surrogate decision making in patients with schizophrenia.

In this paper we analyze the process of the surrogate decision making in schizophrenic patients. First, we rely on a number of ethical principles that will guide the surrogate decision making. Second, we analyze which are the legal rules about guardianship and conservatorship. Third, we expose some action rules for the trial for substitution. Fourth, we develop some norms for the intervention that impose limit to substitutes. Finally, we make a proposal about who is best trained to represent the incapacitated person and how this must be done.