Legal regulation of medical imaging of minors in the USA

The article examines the legal and ethical aspects of medical imaging of minors in the United States, in particular the issues of informed consent, confidentiality and regulatory heterogeneity between states. The impact of federal legislation on the safety of pediatric patients is analyzed, and judicial precedents that determine the rights of minors in making medical decisions are considered. It is found that modern imaging methods (for example, functional MRI) allow detecting diseases at early stages, but their use in pediatrics requires a revision of traditional norms. The need for standardizing the training of doctors with the inclusion of modules on ethics, legal aspects of working with minors and the basics of communication with adolescents, as well as improving the norms for protecting the personal information of minor patients, is proven. It is established that special attention is required in cases where parents are unavailable or unscrupulous, but the mandatory participation of guardians in decision-making is necessary. It is proven that confidentiality in such conditions becomes “two-faceted” (on the one hand, the guarantee of non-disclosure of information to parents encourages adolescents to seek help, on the other hand, it can isolate the child from the family in cases where their safety requires collective support). It is substantiated that in the USA, the regulation of medical imaging practices involving minors is based on a combination of federal laws and state standards aimed at protecting the health and safety of pediatric patients. In addition to legal norms, ethical principles play a key role, in particular the principle of inviolability, which emphasizes the avoidance of harm, requires physicians to carefully analyze the risks and benefits before performing imaging procedures in children. It is established that the lack of a single mechanism of responsibility and the variability of regulation complicate the unified implementation of standards. It is proposed to harmonize legal norms and improve educational programs for physicians, taking into account ethical and social challenges.