Editing Thomas Szasz (section)

===Abolish insanity defense===

Szasz advocated for the removal of the [[insanity defense]]. Just as legal systems work on the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty, individuals accused of crimes should not be presumed incompetent simply because a doctor or psychiatrist labels them as such. Mental incompetence should be assessed like any other form of incompetence, i.e., by purely legal and judicial means with the right of representation and appeal by the accused.

Szasz believed that testimony about the mental competence of a defendant should not be admissible in trials. Psychiatrists testifying about the mental state of an accused person's mind have about as much business as a priest testifying about the religious state of a person's soul in our courts. Szasz argued that the insanity defense was a legal tactic invented to circumvent the punishments of the church, which at the time included confiscation of the property of those who committed suicide, often leaving widows and orphans destitute. Only an insane person would do such a thing to his widow and children, it was successfully argued. This is legal mercy masquerading as medicine, according to Szasz.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.irrenoffensive.de/szaszsymposium/myth.htm | title=Thomas Szasz - the myth of mental illness |website=irrenoffensive.de}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=September 2024|reason=Self-published website; looks like a copy of a Szasz work}}