Providence Health Center v. Dowell

in which Justice BRISTER, Justice GREEN, Justice JOHNSON, and Justice WILLETT joined. NATHAN L. HECHT, Justice.

Twenty-one-year-old Lance Dowell was taken to the emergency room and treated for a superficial, self-inflicted cut on his left wrist. Distraught over losing his girlfriend, he had been threatening to kill himself earlier, but he had calmed down and did not want to be hospitalized. He was released on his promises that he would not commit suicide, would stay with his parents, and would go to the local Mental Health and Mental Retardation center for a follow-up assessment. His mother, a…