Religion News Blog — Australia’s Mental Health Minister, Helen Morton, says a new campaign by the Church of Scientology is sensationalist.
The ‘Citizens Commission on Humans Right,’ a Scientology front group engaged in an ongoing hate campaign against psychiatry and psychiatrists, has advertised in newspapers and distributed pamphlets warning people about changes to the WA (Western Australia) Mental Health Act.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
They say under draft changes to the Act, children could receive treatments such as sterilisation, psychosurgery and electric shock treatment without the consent of their parents.
But Ms Morton has told the ABC the Competent Minor Test is a safeguard which requires a doctor to determine first whether a child is capable of understanding the medical procedure in question.
“They can demonstrate that the young person is well informed, and that there are occasions when it is appropriate for a competent minor to give consent to medical treatment,” she said.
“Rather than make these children or these young folk a ward of the state, as long as the doctor is satisfied that the person is well informed and fully understands what they are consenting to, then they can make that choice.”
In 2007 Scientologists were condemned as “flat earthers”, following revelations in court that an alleged murderer was denied psychiatric treatment due to her family’s Scientologist beliefs.
Scientology’s medical claims and anti-psychiatry propaganda is seen by many critics as mere quackery.
In the so-called ‘Anderson Report,’ published 1965 by the State of Victoria, Australia, Judge Kevin Anderson of Australia’s Supreme Court said:
“Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill… (Scientology is) the world’s largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy.”
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Scientologists call psychiatry a fraud? What nerve!
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard begged for psychiatric help