Archives of Disease in Childhood 2009;94:487-491
LEADING ARTICLES
Overriding competent medical treatment refusal by adolescents: when "no" means "no"
1 King’s College London School of Medicine at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK
2 Kingston University, Kingston Upon Thames, UK
C Johnston, Room 413, Henriette Raphael House, Guy’s Campus, London SE1 1UL, UK; Carolyn.johnston@kcl.ac.uk
Accepted 17 February 2009
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In 2007 the General Medical Council (GMC) published 0–18 years: guidance for all doctors1 which briefly sets out the relevant ethical and legal principles for medical treatment of young people under 18 years of age. It recognises that "Children and young people are individuals with rights that should be respected" (paragraph 7) and that they should be engaged in dialogue about their care. However, a dilemma for both the medical and legal communities is whether a young person’s refusal of medical treatment should be respected where this would put him/her at risk of death or serious harm. The GMC guidance states that "You should seek legal advice if you think treatment is in the best interests of a competent young person who refuses" (paragraph 31). The aim of this article is to explain the legal position and to demonstrate the views of professionals involved with young people, gained through interviews,
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
eLetters:
Read all eLetters
- Determining wisdom
- Ian D Wacogne
- ADC Online, 24 Jul 2009 [Full text]
- “Best interests” verses “Rights”
- Delan Devakumar
- ADC Online, 3 Aug 2009 [Full text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
adc.2008.149781v1
94/7/487 most recent - Submit a response
- Read responses to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
