Article co-authored by Pablo Marshall, adjunct researcher at MICARE, together with Hernán Gómez Yuri.

The paper seeks to address a bioethical problem: the clash of wills that can occur when implementing advance directives* in mental health.

*Advance directives refer to a person’s will regarding their health care, which may include the ability to designate someone to make decisions regarding this, if they are not able to make them for themselves.

Special emphasis is placed on self-binding guidelines, pointing out certain guidelines to observe. For this, the chosen methodology is an exhaustive review of relevant literature on the subject.

Main conclusions:

It is concluded that it is impossible to find a solution that satisfies all the conflicting interests.

Also, that the implementation of effective advance directives in mental health requires a regulation that allows a certain degree of rigidity and compliance with the documents that govern these situations, such as, for example, the case of a mental health treatment against the will of the patient.