Minors' Rights to Consent to Medical Care

Abstract

A CONTINUING issue in the everyday practice of pediatrics is the boundary of the right of a specific child or adolescent to make decisions about his or her own health care.^1-5 Since at least the mid-seventh century in England, a minor, defined as anyone under 21 years of age, was a chattel of his or her father.⁶A father had the right to sue a physician who treated his son or daughter without his permission, even if the treatment had been perfectly appropriate, because such an intervention contravened the father's right to control the child. <h3>THE PREADOLESCENT CHILD</h3> That is still the rule with a young child in a nonacute situation. If a 3-year-old is visiting his grandmother, and she brings him to a plastic surgeon to remove a birthmark the parents had decided to leave alone, the plastic surgeon is at substantial risk of suit from the