Alderson, Priscilla; (2025) Children, Age Discrimination Law, and Consent to Surgery. In: Daly, Aoife and Leviner, Pernilla and Thorburn Stern, Rebecca, (eds.) Treated Like a Child: Age Discrimination and Children's Rights. (pp. 226-244). Brill: Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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Abstract

A central human right, most highly valued by adults, is respect for each person’s autonomy and bodily integrity. In English law – and also in many other jurisdictions – the body may be touched only after the person concerned has given explicit or at least tacit informed consent; touching should cease if the person objects except in specific cases such as the duties of police and prison officers. Numerous court cases around the world confirm the importance of this legal protection, many involving healthcare. The major exception to this protection is legal minors. For them, parents’ or guardians’ consent is required but not their own consent. This chapter considers reasons for discrimination against minors that allows touching without their consent and regardless of their resistance, with the benefits, risks and harms of this exception in relation to medical treatment, specifically surgery. Standards in international law and in bioethics are considered, with reasons and supporting pressures behind the long-held ageist views that undermine respect for children’s consent. Examples of recent rethinking of this discrimination are reported, with hopes for future progress.

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