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1975 Ariz. St. L.J. 31 (1975)
Children's Rights: Removing the Perental Consent Barrier to Medical Treatment of Minors

handle is hein.journals/arzjl1975 and id is 73 raw text is: Children's Rights: Removing the Parental Consent Barrier to Medical Treatment of Minors Lawrence P. Wilkins* Traditionally, a minor cannot obtain medical treatment without parental consent. This consent doctrine has derived in large part from irrelevant property and contract principles and a virtually exclusive legislative and judicial concern for the rights of parents. The doctrine has led to tragic and avoidable injury to untreated minors and harsh liability for treating physicians. Today, the consent doctrine has been eroded by exceptions and challenged by modern concepts of the individual. A minor seeking medical care faces a combination of statutes and judicial policies which are confusing if not in conflict. Concern over this predicament has generally focused on drug and sex-related treatments. This Article goes beyond these issues and surveys many other medical needs which have as great or greater importance to minors. Professor Wilkins favors abandoning the consent doctrine and suggests new rules for the medical treatment of minors. I. INTRODUCTION The requirement of parental consent is one of the reasons why many young people who need medical treatment are not receiving it. Because medical decisions are so important, in most instances irreversible, and because some minors, especially the younger ones, are thought to be incapable of adequately assessing all pertinent factors, the legal capacity of all minors to make medical decisions has been removed. This capacity has been placed with someone else-the parent, someone standing in the legal position of the parent, or the courts. In only a very limited set of circumstances do minors retain the power to determine for themselves what their medical needs are. The requirement of consent, often recited to be for the protection of the minor, operates in many cases to prevent or to delay medical assistance. In most jurisdictions, a minor must obtain parental consent before a physician will conduct a medical examination. Minors with medical needs of particular sensitivity, such as sex or drug-related problems, are frequently deterred by the knowledge that the physician will confer with the parents before proceed- *Assistant Professor of Law, University of Akron School of Law. B.A. 1968, Ohio State University; J.D. 1973, Capital University; LL.M. 1974, University of Texas.

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