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Informed Consent Case Study

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Informed consent, by definition, requires the administering health care provider to disclose appropriate information to a competent patient, and allow that patient sufficient time to choose, voluntarily, whether to accept or refuse treatment (Appelbaum, 2007). For children, the law upholds an inability to provide their own informed consent as they lack the decisive ability inherent in consent (Appelbaum, 2007). Thereby, for children, a proxy, as determined by the state laws, chooses the course of treatment on their behalf (Appelbaum, 2007). Furthermore, for children of, an undesignated, reasonable age, a consultation about assent, or willingness for acceptance of treatment or care, should follow a guardian’s decision (Appelbaum, 2007). Responsibility …show more content…

J.R. that upheld the parental right to commit a minor, although it violates the minor’s due process rights (1979). However, an informed consent issue arises here as well. The Court uses the basis that the recommendation for psychiatric commitment, the private interest under due process, is the inseparable link between the child’s liberty interests in conjunction with the parental obligation to manage the welfare of the child (Turner, 1989). In so doing, the parents and clinician ignore the child’s right to assent, while possibly an appropriate decision in this case, the informed consent issue remains. The parents receive no information regarding the minor’s treatment, they surrender the child to the county in deciding to commit him against his will (Parham v. J.R., 1979). Therefore, although the legal justification for the child staying at the institution exists, the informed consent in this case lacks legitimacy (Turner, 1989). The action of putting the child into the county’s control possibly acts in the best interest for the welfare of the child, however no guarantee in the law exists that the county acts in the best interest by upholding the committal. Under these pretenses, the aim of informed consent is

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