Two years later in a landmark case,4 the Illinois Supreme Court specifically recognized the right of some minors to refuse medical treatment. The litigant was a 17-year-old girl with leukemia who needed life-sustaining blood transfusions. Both the minor and her mother were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and withheld consent to the blood transfusion because of their religious beliefs. The Court opined that the age of majority, “is not an impenetrable barrier that magically precludes a minor from possessing and exercising certain rights normally associated with adulthood,” and that if clear and convincing evidence was presented regarding maturity, then the “mature minor doctrine affords [the minor] the common law right to consent to or refuse medical treatment.” The following year, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held that a minor’s clear and convincing decision not to be maintained by life-sustaining procedures must be respected.5 In that instance, Chad, a minor just under 18, had lapsed into a persistent vegetative state following an auto accident.
Other court decisions favoring the minor abound.6 For example, a court held that a 14-year-old boy could decide whether he wanted his cleft palate and harelip repaired, regardless of his father’s objections to the operation. In another case, the court ordered treatment for a 12-year-old arthritis victim whose parents relied on faith healing, where there was uncontested medical testimony in favor of treatment. In yet another, a 13-year-old boy was placed under state supervision for purposes of receiving chemotherapy and surgery that was estimated to have a 65% of curing his cancer. The court ruled that the information given by his father regarding the preference for and effectiveness of herbal therapy was wrong, and the minor’s refusal of consent was not an informed one. On the other hand, even a mature minor does not have an unfettered right to refuse treatment, especially where such refusal is against medical advice. For example, a 16-year-old was forced, against her will, to accept tube feedings to treat her condition of anorexia nervosa.
In addressing the right of mature minors to refuse life-sustaining treatment, the 1985 New York Task Force on Life and the Law acknowledged the need to balance “the developing rights of the minor and parental rights,” and society’s interest “in promoting the autonomy and well-being of minors.” The Task Force recognized that some minors have the maturity and capacity to participate in medical decisions, and recommended that the treating physician assess the minor’s maturity, conceptual ability and life’s experience in order for the minor to assume a substantial, though not exclusive, role in decisions to refuse life-sustaining treatment.
Notes
1. Joan-Margaret Kun, Rejecting the Adage Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard – The Mature Minor Doctrine, 16 Pace L. Rev. 423 (1996). Available at http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol16/iss2/13.
2. In re Cassandra C., Supreme Court, State of Connecticut, No. 19426, Jan. 8, 2015.
3. Cardwell v. Bechtol, 724 S.W. 2d 739 (Tenn. 1987)
4. In re E.G., 549 N.E. 2d 322 (Ill. 1990).
5. In re Swan, 569 A. 2d 1202 (Me. 1990).
6. Weir RF and Peters C. Affirming the Decisions Adolescents Make about Life and Death. Hastings Center Report 1997; 27:29-40.
Dr. Tan is emeritus professor of medicine and former adjunct professor of law at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, and currently directs the St. Francis International Center for Healthcare Ethics, also in Honolulu. This article is meant to be educational and does not constitute medical, ethical, or legal advice. Some of the articles in this series are adapted from the author’s 2006 book, “Medical Malpractice: Understanding the Law, Managing the Risk,” and his 2012 Halsbury treatise, “Medical Negligence and Professional Misconduct.” For additional information, readers may contact the author at siang@hawaii.edu.