Constitutional Implications of Medical Action Refusal by Pediatric Patient’s Parents

Abstract

The law recognizes qualified adult patients to have right in refusing or accepting medical treatments, even if the refusal may cause fatal risk. In the other hand, for pediatric patient, the parents are the one who responsible for their medical treatment agreement. This phenomenon puts the child in a difficult situation as well as raises ethical and professional dilemmas for the doctors. This research aims to reveal the problem faced by pediatric patients in obtaining health right, health services specifically. The research type conducted is normative juridical. As a consideration, the research started by analysing laws and regulations to identify legal concepts and principles used in regulating children's rights. Thus, the approaches taken are the statutory approach and the conceptual approach. Research result shows that the child's health rights are guaranteed by child rights convention and regulation concerning child protection, Law Number 23 Year 2002 which revised into Law Number 35 Year 2014. However, refusal of medical treatment by pediatric patient's parent has no specific legal consequences. As the research recommendation, to legally protect children's health rights, the government should formulate specific regulation for pediatric patient's parent. So that, they can be legally accused when they refuse medical treatment that important for children health interest.