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Erin Wolfe
Ms. Tupajic
Anatomy/Physiology
16 November 2014
Minors And Medical Decisions

As history progresses and changes, new issues and controversies constantly

form and fade. One of the fairly recent controversies today is the general issue of
minors and medical decisions. As the law stands in America, in general, the parents
make almost all of the medical decisions for their child that is under the legal age of
adulthood. This age varies from about 16 to 18 depending on the state. The controversy
on this issue is that many think that minors should be given more rights with the issue of
medical decisions involving themselves, but as of now the law still gives the parents and
guardians the right to make decisions for them. To fully understand the issue, it is
important to know the full extent of law, is and how it works. There are special
exceptions to the law in certain cases, usually if the minor has proven mature enough,
and if they prove their actions are for their own self-interest, they may invoke a Judicial
Bypass. The Judicial Bypass allows the minor to be declared a mature minor and allows
them to make their own medical decisions. However, the lines of this law gets blurry in
cases of the medical privacy of the adolescent, which also has many exceptions to it as
well, but in general the parents/guardians have the right to inspect the adolescents
record. The other exception to this law is if the minor is emancipated and a minor can
be emancipated if they fit a certain criteria. This criteria may slightly vary depending on
the state, but usually they must be at least 16, live away from their legal guardians, and
economically self-sufficient. Other definitions are if the minor is pregnant or has a child,
they are married, a part of the military, or just declared emancipated by the court. When
faced with the question about minors rights, people do not have the full understanding
of all that is involved with it, or the simple definitive facts that support the decision of
why parents and guardians have this authority over their children. There are many, such

as the fact that in general, parents have greater life experience and knowledge, also
that a childs frontal lobe isnt fully formed, therefore impairing good judgmentespecially in cases of someone who wished to end treatment of a terminal illness,
minors often dont consider the people who would be most affected.
The first and most obvious reason for why this law is there, and why it needs to
stay, is that adults will have more experience and knowledge and use this to choose the
appropriate action on behalf of the child. The law assumes that every parent will be
responsible and act out of care for the child, but if this is not the case the law will
intervene and other steps will be taken. The medical care of anyone who appropriately
cares for themselves, is complicated and difficult to handle. If a minor felt the need to
take the action to be medically emancipated, they must be able to decide
what treatment they receive, how often they receive it and from whom the treatment is
obtained. 1 This is a large responsibility for a young person to take on and is most likely
enacted fairly infrequently. The parents and guardians are also the ones who are
assumed to know their child best, and will make the best decisions for them also by
factoring in their experience and knowledge.
One of the more scientific reasons for this law is the fact that the brain is not fully
developed till a person has reached the age of 25. More specifically the frontal lobe.
The frontal lobe is often referred to as the decision-making part of the brain. It
functions in reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem
solving. 2 It is this part of the brain that is the problem, especially in teenage years. Due
to this, teenagers lack the ability to see the consequence of their actions in the long run,
they have an absence of insight, and it is also thought that this is where right and wrong

decisions are made. While adults may face an emotional problem and think more
rationally using their frontal lobe, this is not the case for teenagers. They have less
activity in the frontal lobe, and much more in their amygdala, which is involved in
experiencing emotion, which causes them to make impulsive actions based on emotion
without thinking rationally. This can explain the bad judgment of a teenager and how
easily flawed his or her decisions can be. The fact that the brain is still constantly
changing and forming is proof that a solid parent or guardian should be there to help
guide the child. The guardian is able to know right from wrong, have insight, know the
cause-and-effect of decisions, and be able to rationally think things through without
letting their emotions take control of their actions.
A very popular argument that people often give to challenge this law is that some
children, in fact, seem to mature much faster than other adolescents their age,
therefore, this law should be changed. This is an example of someone who does not
fully understand the extent of this law. Exceptionally mature children, should they want
to, can in fact prove their maturity and understanding and request the Judicial Bypass.
However, one cant avoid the scientific fact that the minors frontal lobe is still forming
and this is something that isnt different by situation or person. This is the way it is in
every minor and it affects the important decisions they will have to make. The years of
the life of a minor is also still few, and they generally dont have the maturity or the
knowledge to properly make those decisions or handle the responsibility on their own.
Medical Emancipation is a step to achieve these choices, but it is a large step that
requires knowledge into many things that is also previously mentioned above. The

majority of minors will not be able to handle that responsibility and should entrust it to
someone who could and who could help them handle it in the future.
The go-to example of a minor with a desire to make medical decisions is a minor
who has a terminal illness and wishes to end treatment. This situation becomes very
emotional and highly controversial. Mostly what outsiders see from this is a poor child
who wishes to end the pain. But what they dont see is those who would be affected by
this decision to die. Death alone of someone close to a person causes shock, pain,
anger, guilt, depression, longing and the list goes on. When someone decides to make
this decision to end their life, it really is a kind of suicide. Which, in itself, has a longer
list of effects, including a higher chance of suicide in loved ones of the deceased. A
popular saying amongst minors in many situations, including when defending why they
should have a say in their medical decision, is Its my life. This maybe is the case, but
when a minor makes the decision to let themselves die, in the end, they only affect
those close to them, and not in a positive way. It is also an emotional reaction to
something that should be thought through rationally, more proof of the forming frontal
lobe. Overall, minors need to be able to see what the lasting effects of what they decide
to do before making irrational decisions which harm others. As most are without this, it
is important for an adult to make such important decisions.
With every controversy that emerges, it is always important to look, see, and
understand the problem, as well as collect every fact that could be an important
deciding factor in that controversy. Minors who wish to have a say in their medical
decisions, can, but only in rare occasions when they have proved worthy of it. For the
majority, and the minority, the major fact that minors brains are still forming, particularly

the decision making part of the brain, cannot, and should not, be ignored. This in turn
leads to why minors who wish to end their life cannot accurately see the lasting effects
of their actions, and therefore should not be trusted with that decision. The law that
currently stands regarding minors and their medical decisions is good, addresses even
the rarest of situations, and should not be changed.

Raquel Hunter, Medical Emancipation of a Minor,

http://www.mamashealth.com/patient/medicalminor.asp (Date accessed: November 15, 2014)
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Patricia Anne Kinser, Brain Structures and their Functions
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/kinser/Structure1.html (Accessed: November 16, 2014)

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