ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by exploring a child's capacity to consent to treatment. It focuses on the extent to which child patients are capable of refusing treatment, and how the law deals with authorizing the treatment of a child who lacks capacity to consent/refuse treatment. Therefore, child patient who is older than 16 but younger than 18 is deemed to have sufficient capacity to give a valid consent to treatment. The Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) released a circular in 1980 which recommended that girls under 16 years of age should be given greater access to the contraceptive pill. The Family Law Reform Act 1969 divides child patients into three categories when it comes to deciding whether they have the requisite capacity to give a valid consent. If the child patient does not possess the level of maturity, intelligence and understanding necessary to be considered Gillick competent, they will not be able to give a valid consent to treatment.
