0-18 years guidance: Making decisions

1. 22. You can provide medical treatment to a child or young person with their consent if they are competent, or with the consent of a parent or the court.⁴ You can provide emergency treatment without consent to save the life of, or prevent serious deterioration in the health of, a child or young person.
2. 23. You should involve children and young people as much as possible in decisions about their care, even when they are not able to make decisions on their own.

Subsections of Making decisions

•   Assessing the capacity to consent (paragraphs 24-26)
  • Children and young people who lack the capacity to consent (paragraphs 27-28)
  • Young people who have the capacity to consent (paragraph 29)
• If a young person refuses treatment (paragraphs 30-33)
• Procedures undertaken mainly for religious, cultural, social or emotional reasons (paragraphs 34-35)
• Research (paragraphs 36-40)
• Donation, transplantation, organ and tissue storage and use (paragraph 41)