Child Healthcare Law in England and Wales – Scotland

This article focuses on the British common law approach of child’s personal involvement in medical decisions. This article seeks for a key of understanding of Court’s decisions that apparently are irreconcilable or contra legem. It assesses how case law makes the balance between the child’s rights and interests and what tests are used by judges to achieve it. The child’s right to make decisions must be balanced with parental responsibility. At the same time welfare protection, age, understanding of the child, must be articulated by the court in ruling on the case. Liability of medical practitioners is also at stake and connected issues must also be considered in drawing the legal frame ruling medical decisions, made with respect to under-18 patients. The legal frame depends on the child’s age and maturity and can be split into three different set of rules that we propose to articulate in a decreasing scale of the child’s legal empowerment.