“Are Minors Eligible?

” Ethical Analysis of

Should minors with capacity be allowed to make health care decisions without parental consent?

Kristian Markus S. Delos Santos, RN

ABSTRACT

This paper talks about minors, whether if their eligible to decide for themselves or not without parental
consent. This includes its limitations and what are other options of our health care provider when it
comes to emergency cases, can we act upon without a legal guardian, and can it affect a delay in the
health status of a minor, and does assent can be a form of consent whenever a guardian is not present.

Keywords: Autonomy; Assent; Minors; Healthcare; legal guardian

Introduction

Our Generation today is advancing too quick, having younger generation more knowledgeable and
dependable. There are even kids that can earn the same amount of money as the adults can make of an
average salary wage. With the help of different platforms across the net; social media blogging,
streaming online games, or with just simple mix of style and uniqueness, it can trend and gain a lot of
views throughout the World Wide Web, and in translation, fame and money. With this new engagement
to technology, this makes younger generation to stand up for themselves and even decides without
consulting their guardians or parents. Practices like these trains our younger generation in being more
morally active by acting upon themselves thus implying autonomy. Assent from minors can be a form of
consent which is required in clinical practices in health care in children. But the dilemma comes in, can a
minor decide for himself, or does the minor have autonomy in deciding health care decision without
parental consent.
Eligibility and competence of a minor

If maturity can only be measured and be used as a tool for knowing the eligibility of a minor, then that
alone could answer our dilemma, but there isn’t. Today’s younger generation are usually look up to, that
they’re the future of our nation. They are trained while they were young, and usually left with
responsibilities, but could they ever match the moral responsibility of an adult. According to Kathryn
Hickey, adolescents are caught in a limbo-like state between the dependency of childhood and the
autonomy of adult- hood. Their cognitive ability and capacity to reason are similar to those of an adult.
However, adolescents may lack the moral responsibility, judgment, and experience to understand the
outcome of their actions and decisions. (JONA’S Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation / Volume 9,
Number 3 / July–September 2007) Health care decisions are hard already for an adult to decide, what
more of a minor. but eventually, situations like emergency cases, which a minor doesn’t have a legal
guardian at an emergency room, it’ll all depend to the clinician to decide it it’s a matter of life and death.
Situations like life and death, if the minor is unconscious then there’s no need for any consent, however
if the minor is conscious, any medical procedure can continue, as long as the minor has a complete
understanding of the procedure, and the beneficence of it. An assent could be acknowledge, prior to any
emergency treatment.