16: Capable Children’s Medical Treatment

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This chapter is concerned with medical decision-making for, with, and by mature children. Through a combination of academic discourse absent from the dominant literature and a case study from fiction (The Children Act by Ian McEwan), this chapter conducts a fresh exploration of ethical dilemmas that arise in child medical law. This chapter discusses the incremental changes in interpretation and application of the Gillick test, sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and section 8 of the Family Law Reform Act 1969 to understand minors’ power to consent and the much more limited power to refuse.

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