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Old enough to know best?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jo Bridgeman*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool

Extract

Are there now any circumstances in which a teenage may effectively withhold her consent to medical treatment? By effectively, I mean not only that she can refuse to consent to treatment but also that this refusal is respected and the treatment prevented.

Consent to medical advice and treatment, the givingofwhich means that a doctor does or does not commit a battery (criminal or civil) on her patient, necessarily involves both the giving of consent and the withholding of consent. Without one the other has no meaning.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1993

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References

Notes

1. [1992] 3 WLR 758.

2. Re J, (1992) Times, 14 May. The High Court judgment was reported as Re J, the judgment of the Court of Appeal was reported as Re W.

3. [1985] 3 All ER 402 at 431G.

4. [1985] 3 All ER 402.

5. At 423J. The majority judgments were given by Lords Fraser, Scarman and Bridge, with Lords Templeman and Brandon dissenting.

6. At412F.

7. At 422A.

8. See A. Bainham, ‘The Judge and the Competent Minor’ (1992) LQR 194.

9. [1992] 3 WLR 758.

10. [1991] 4 All ER 177.

11. [1991] 4 All ER 177.

14. At 187E.

13. At 191D.

14. Staughton LJ did comment that there seemed to be a difference of opinion between that expressed by Lord Scarman in Gillick and that of Lord Donaldson MR in Re R; see [1991] 4 All ER 177 at 189A.

15. [1991] 4 All ER 177 at 184D.

16. [1985] 3 All ER 402, at 423J, see n 5 and associated text.

17. [1991] 4 All ER 177 at 185D.

18. At 192H.

19. [1992] 3 WLR 758 at 773F.

20. At 776C.

21. Re W, in the High Court reported as Re J, (1992), Times, 14 May.

22. [1992] 3 WLR 758 at 769H.

23. M. Jones, ‘Consent to Medical Treatment by Minors after Gillick’ 2 Prof Neg 41 at 43.

24. [1992] 3 WLR 758 at 767C.

25. At 769F.

26. [1985] 3 All ER 402 at 421H.

27. [1992] 3 WLR 758 at 772H.

28. H. Bruch, Eating Disorders (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974).