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Competent children? Minors' consent to health care treatment and research

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  • Alderson, Priscilla

Abstract

This paper concentrates on controversies about children's consent, and reviews how children's changing status as competent decision makers about healthcare and research has gradually gained greater respect. Criteria for competence have moved from age towards individual children's experience and understanding. Uncertain and shifting concepts of competence and its identification with adulthood and childhood are examined, together with levels of decision-making and models for assessing children's competence. Risks and uncertainties, methods of calculating the frequency and severity of risks, the concept of 'therapeutic research' and problems of expanding consent beyond its remit are considered. The paper ends by considering how strengths and limitations in children's status and capacities to consent can be mirrored in researchers' and practitioners' own status and capacities. Examples are drawn from empirical research studies about decision-making in healthcare and research involving children in the UK.

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  • Alderson, Priscilla, 2007. "Competent children? Minors' consent to health care treatment and research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 2272-2283, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:11:p:2272-2283
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alderson, Priscilla & Hawthorne, Joanna & Killen, Margaret, 2006. "Parents' experiences of sharing neonatal information and decisions: Consent, cost and risk," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 1319-1329, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anna Stålberg & Anette Sandberg & Thomas Larsson & Imelda Coyne & Maja Söderbäck, 2018. "Curious, thoughtful and affirmative—Young children's meanings of participation in healthcare situations when using an interactive communication tool," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1-2), pages 235-246, January.
    2. Bradbury-Jones, Caroline & Isham, Louise & Taylor, Julie, 2018. "The complexities and contradictions in participatory research with vulnerable children and young people: A qualitative systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 80-91.
    3. Donna Koller, 2017. "‘Kids need to talk too’: inclusive practices for children's healthcare education and participation," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(17-18), pages 2657-2668, September.
    4. Putniņa, Aivita, 2013. "Bioethics and power: Informed consent procedures in post-socialist Latvia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 340-344.
    5. Wild, Cervantée & MacLean, Alice & Nettleton, Sarah & Hunt, Kate & Ziebland, Sue, 2024. "The double invisibility of Long Covid in children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 347(C).
    6. Bhana, Deevia, 2009. ""AIDS is rape!" gender and sexuality in children's responses to HIV and AIDS," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 596-603, August.
    7. Janet Boddy, 2014. "Research across cultures, within countries: Hidden ethics tensions in research with children and families?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(1), pages 91-103, January.
    8. Inge Schalkers & Cathleen S Parsons & Joske FG Bunders & Christine Dedding, 2016. "Health professionals' perspectives on children's and young people's participation in health care: a qualitative multihospital study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(7-8), pages 1035-1044, April.
    9. Elisabeta Ioana Hiriscau & Nicola Stingelin-Giles & Danuta Wasserman & Stella Reiter-Theil, 2016. "Identifying Ethical Issues in Mental Health Research with Minors Adolescents: Results of a Delphi Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, May.

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