BMJ 1994;309:1303 (12 November)

Letters

Children's consent to treatment

EDITOR, - William G Brooks Jr and colleagues oppose the practice of requesting children's consent to treatment on four grounds.1 They believe that this would "trivialise" the process of obtaining consent, would add a "cumbersome legal manoeuvre," and is "inappropriate and impractical." Similar objections used to be raised with regard to the consent of adult patients, but they are now discredited in the United States and Britain. Brooks and colleagues cite research showing that many adults do not understand consent forms, but they miss the point that the difficulty frequently lies not in the inability of adults to grasp the salient issues but in the inability of doctors to write clear forms.

There is growing research evidence that, in the view of the adults caring for them, certain young children are capable of understanding complex and distressing information. Children want to be informed, and many wish to share in making . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

New diagnostic test for vaginal infection
S C Arya
BMJ 1994 309: 807. [Extract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ