Editorials

Making decisions with children

Most health care professionals support the ideal of shared decision making with adult patients. Decisions affecting children and young people are more complex, involving parents as a third party. Children want to be part of the decision making process,^{1 2} but protective attitudes of paediatricians, and our generally overcautious assessment of children's ability to understand and reason in an environment of traditional adult superiority, have probably contributed to a tendency to overlook the rights of children to express their views. Case law, mostly derived from unusual or extreme cases, has compounded the problems, leading to the present confused and unsatisfactory position regarding children's rights.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child falls short of recognising children's rights to autonomy; it limits the decision making process to "giving due weight to the views of the child . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Making decisions with children

P J Mahaffey
BMJ 1996 313: 49. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Paul, M., Foreman, D. M., Kent, L. (2000). Out-Patient Clinic Attendance Consent from Children and Young People: Ethical Aspects and Practical Considerations. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry 5: 203-211 [Abstract]  
• Dixon-Woods, M., Young, B., Heney, D. (1999). Partnerships with children. BMJ 319: 778-780 [Full text]  
• Stephenson, T., Walker, D. A (1996). Telling parents all relevant details might reduce recruitment of children to trials. BMJ 313: 362b-363 [Full text]  
• Mahaffey, P J (1996). Making decisions with children. BMJ 313: 49-49 [Full text]