BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua)
-- A mental health law that requires
consent from mentally ill patients
before they receive inpatient treatment
will take effect in China on
Wednesday.
The law was approved
by the Standing Committee of the 11th
National People's Congress last
October after three
readings.
The law says mentally
ill people, with the exception of
those with a severe mental illness
or who have the potential to
harm themselves or others, should
receive inpatient treatment on a
purely voluntary basis.
The law
also requires medical institutions to
respect their right to demand a
discharge.
The law has
attracted a great deal of attention
since a draft of the law was
first submitted for discussion, as
reports of people being wrongly
institutionalized have
increased.
According to the
law, there should be no infringement
upon the dignity, personal safety or
property of mentally ill
people.
Institutions and individuals
must protect the privacy of mentally
ill people by preventing leaks of
private information, such as their
names, addresses and employment status,
unless the sharing of such data
is necessary for institutions and
individuals in order to exercise their
lawful duties.
Several other
laws and regulations will come into
effect on Wednesday.
A
regulation on the compulsory scrapping
of vehicles, issued by the Ministry
of Commerce in January, stipulates
that vehicles that do not meet
certain requirements, such as emission
and noise requirements, must be
dismantled.
A regulation introduced
by the State Administration of Work
Safety that requires manufacturers to
obtain licenses from local regulatory
administrations before using hazardous
chemicals in production will also go
into effect.
Manufacturers that
handle hazardous chemicals without the
license, as well as those that
attempt to counterfeit or illegally
transfer such licenses, may be subject
to fines of up to 200,000 yuan (31,805
U.S. dollars), as well as face
criminal penalties in the event of
a serious violation, according to the
regulation.
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