Decisional Capacity

Christian Carrozzo is a philosopher at George Mason University in Virginia, where he completed a master's fellowship and was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in Philosophy by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He completed his PhD coursework in philosophy at the University at Albany, State University of New York. From 2012 to 2026, he served as head of education, founder/director of the Program for Neuroethics and Clinical Consciousness, and Managing Editor of the Journal of Hospital Ethics at the John J. Lynch, MD Center for Ethics. He has also held academic appointments at The George Washington University and American University, and was a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University. His research addresses metaphysical, epistemological, and moral questions in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science.Carrozzo has served as a specialist reviewer for the U.S. Department of Defenses Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program and maintains active involvement with the American Philosophical Association, the International Neuroethics Society, and the International Society for the Philosophy of the Sciences of the Mind.Elspeth Cameron Ritchie is a forensic psychiatrist with expertise in military and veterans' issues. She has been Chief of Psychiatry at Medstar Washington Hospital Center since 2018. She retired from the U.S. Army in 2010, after holding numerous leadership positions, including Psychiatry Consultant. She trained at Harvard, George Washington, Walter Reed, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and has completed fellowships in both forensic as well as preventive and disaster psychiatry. She is a Professor of Psychiatry at USUHS, Georgetown University, and The George Washington University.An internationally recognized expert, she brings a unique public health approach to the management of disaster and combat mental health issues. She has over 250 publications in the areas of forensics, disaster, suicide, ethics, military combat psychiatry, and women's health issues. Edited volumes include Women at War (OUP, 2015) and Intimacy Post-Injury: Combat Trauma and Sexual Health (OUP, 2016).

• 1. Decisional Capacity: Framing the Issues and Discovering Pathways 2. A History of Decisional Capacity and Its Assessment in Clinical Research and Clinical Medicine: Foundations of Valid Informed Consent 3. Psychiatric Disorders and Criminal Capacities: An Account of Competency in the Justice System 4. Capacity Evaluations in Patients with Major Neurocognitive Disorder 5. Capacity and Informed Consent Considerations in Patients with Delirium 6. Decisional Capacity and Severe Mental Illness 7. Substance Use Disorder and the Capacity to Refuse Treatment 8. The Unbefriended Patient in Need of Hospital Guardianship 9. Traumatic Brain Injury: Cognition, Capacity, and Autonomy 10. Supported Decision-Making Capacity Evaluation for Persons with Aphasia: Uplifting Voices and Promoting Equity 11. Cancer and Decisional Capacity: A Humanistic Approach 12. Challenges of Psychosocial Pre-Surgical Evaluations for Bariatric Surgery: A Role for Capacity Evaluation 13. Considering the Welfare Impact of a Choice When Assessing Decision-Making Capacity: Is It Always Wrong? 14. Assessing Decisional Capacity as an Educational Task 15. Mental Capacity and the Movement for Medical Aid in Dying: A Comparative Medicolegal Analysis 16. Forced Treatment for Substance Use Disorder: The Constitutionality of Caseyâs Law 17. Enhancing Personal Capacity: Beyond Cognitive Improvement towards Moral and Legal Responsibility