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64 Fordham L. Rev. 2075 (1995-1996)
Protecting the Rights and Interests of Competent Minors in Litigated Medical Treatment Disputes

handle is hein.journals/flr64 and id is 2091 raw text is: NOTE PROTECTING THE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS OF COMPETENT MINORS IN LITIGATED MEDICAL TREATMENT DISPUTES Susan D. Hawkins INTRODUCTION In 1994, Billy Best, a sixteen-year-old cancer patient from Norwell, Massachusetts, ran away to Texas to avoid continuing his chemother- apy treatment, even though his parents had consented to the treat- ment for him.1 In another highly publicized case, fifteen-year-old Lee Lor fled her home in Fresno County, California after police, paramedics, and social workers dragged her from her home and forced her to undergo chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.2 Her par- ents had refused to consent to the necessary treatment,3 a decision with which Lee agreed, due to her fears and her Hmong family's sus- picion of Western medicine.4 These cases are just two examples of situations in which a minor has experienced pressure to undergo med- ical treatment against the minor's wishes. Other disputes have also arisen when parents refused to consent to medical treatment for their minor child, despite that the minor herself had expressed a desire to undergo the treatment.5 In the United States, minors are generally considered legally incom- petent to consent to or refuse most forms of medical treatment.6 Par- ents generally have the sole authority to decide whether their children will receive such treatment, and a physician may not treat a minor without the consent of the minor's parent or guardian.7 Conse- quently, when the views of the minor and her parents concerning 1. Richard A. Knox, Billy Best's Case Reveals Gray Area of Patient Rights, Bos- ton Globe, Nov. 23, 1994, at 1, 19. 2. Kathryn D. Perkins, Kids Asserting Rights in Health Care: Support Grows for Choice in Treatment, S.F. Examiner, May 1, 1995, at B10. 3. Alex Pulaski, Social Workers Meet with Hmong Family: The Big Question Is if Authorities Will Let Daughter Return to Her Parents, Fresno Bee, Oct. 15, 1994, at B2. 4. Perkins, supra note 2, at B10. 5. See, e.g., In re Hudson, 126 P.2d 765, 768 (Wash. 1942) (discussing case of 12- year-old girl with a deformed left arm who had many times expressed the wish for removal of the ... arm and frequently wept because of her affliction, but whose mother refused to consent to amputation). 6. See Garry S. Sigman & Carolyn O'Connor, Exploration for Physicians of the Mature Minor Doctrine, 119 J. Pediatrics 520, 521 (1991); Matthew S. Feigenbaum, Comment, Minors, Medical Treatment, and Interspousal Disagreement Should Solo- mon Split the Child?, 41 DePaul L. Rev. 841, 851 (1992). 7. See Sigman & O'Connor, supra note 6, at 521. Of course, as an exception to the general rule, physicians are permitted to render medical treatment to a minor without parental consent in an emergency situation. Id- 2075

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