Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Table of statutory instruments
- Table of international instruments
- Part One Theoretical perspectives and international sources
- Part Two Promoting consultation and decision-making
- 3 Adolescent autonomy and parents
- 4 Leaving home, rights to support and emancipation
- 5 Adolescent decision-making and health care
- 6 Promoting consultation and decision-making in schools
- 7 Children's involvement in family proceedings – rights to representation
- 8 Children in court – their welfare, wishes and feelings
- Part Three Children's rights and parents' powers
- 19 Conclusion – themes and the way ahead
- Appendix I UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Appendix II Human Rights Act 1998
- Index
- References
5 - Adolescent decision-making and health care
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- Table of statutory instruments
- Table of international instruments
- Part One Theoretical perspectives and international sources
- Part Two Promoting consultation and decision-making
- 3 Adolescent autonomy and parents
- 4 Leaving home, rights to support and emancipation
- 5 Adolescent decision-making and health care
- 6 Promoting consultation and decision-making in schools
- 7 Children's involvement in family proceedings – rights to representation
- 8 Children in court – their welfare, wishes and feelings
- Part Three Children's rights and parents' powers
- 19 Conclusion – themes and the way ahead
- Appendix I UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Appendix II Human Rights Act 1998
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
It is no accident that many of the boundaries to adolescent legal independence have been mapped out by the courts in the context of health care. Medical treatment often involves an invasion of bodily and personal privacy which would be intolerable if patients had no right to control its delivery. International human rights law recognises that an important aspect of an adult's right to self-determination includes the right to decide what should happen to his own body. Long before the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 was implemented, the common law had emphasised that adult patients enjoy such a right. Precisely the same reasoning can be applied to adolescents. Although young children, particularly if they are unwell, might not be equal to reaching decisions on their medical treatment, adolescents are different. They are not only fast reaching maturity, but society has an interest in ensuring that they take responsibility for decision-making over important aspects of their lives. Furthermore, they are being taught to value their status as rights-holders and can justifiably argue that they, like adults, have the right to make choices over their medical treatment, if competent to do so.
This chapter is divided into two sections. It first assesses the extent to which the general principles of law recognise an adolescent's capacity to consent to and refuse medical treatment.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Children's Rights and the Developing Law , pp. 146 - 186Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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