From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!soreff@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: Replying about Hinkley Re: utzoo!Laura among others. Article-I.D.: hplabs.530 Posted: Mon Jul 12 08:58:55 1982 Received: Tue Jul 13 05:59:16 1982 In reply to the question "By what method can society prevent a sane, but ill intending, person from using the insanity defense to that person's aid, while still maintaining a haven for the truly ill?": This depends to a large extent on whether one believes that people cluster into discernably ill and healthy groups. If one believes this, then the problem seems to be in the technology of diagnosis. If we had lab tests for mental illness which involved evidence that was very difficult to fake (blood chemisry, CAT scan results, EEGs etc.) then the problem would be much less severe. If one doesn't believe that people are usually clearly healthy or clearly ill, then one can't avoid setting an arbitrary threshold somewhere. There is a more stringent test for diagnostics to be used in a trial than for use in ordinary diagnosis. Rather than testing the tests on known ill and healthy populations, one must test them on known ill and healthy populati attempting to feign illness.