ABSTRACT
Competent Minors successfully refuse treatment in the National Health Service countless times every day. In the case of a 16-year-old orphaned girl called W, who had been unsuccessfully fostered and then suffered further misfortunes, a local authority was seeking the court's agreement to admit her to a unit where she could be compulsorily fed. In finding that W's refusal could be overridden, the Court of Appeal revealed its approach to balancing the under-18's autonomy against the risks involved in its observance: ‘Good parenting involves giving minors as much rope as they can handle without an unacceptable risk that they will hang themselves’. In practice, the court is unlikely to overrule a competent minor's decision in the ordinary run of surgical/dental/medical treatment, despite its power to do so. Furthermore, courts have supported competent children who were in conflict with their parents, adopting and upholding the children's views on serious treatment.
