Adolescents and Consent to Treatment

This article addresses the legal and ethical duties of health service when dealing with prospective patients who are minors. The authors discuss how the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) limits parental powers by emphasizing adolescents' "evolving capacities" for self-determination. The authors address a number of concepts relevant to medical treatment and the rights and capacity of adolescents including "mature minors", "emancipated minors", age of consent, and confidentiality. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Adolescents, International]