Past Paediatric Patients, Consent and Refusals of Medical Treatment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Investigation into the Issues Surrounding Competent Paediatric Patients, Their Consent and Refusals of Therapeutic Medical Treatment.
IRAS ID
242598
Contact name
Jane Bryan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
An investigation into how the law of consent is applied in medical practice, and the issues competent paediatric patients encounter when refusing therapeutic medical treatment.
There is yet to be a legal judgement that recognises a paediatric patient as having the competency to refuse medical treatment. The law of consent presumes children under 16 are incompetent to make decisions about their health care. The law acknowledges that there are exceptions to this general rule, and provides legal guidance which enable competent paediatric patients to lawfully consent to medical treatment. However, with regards to refusing medical treatment, the judiciary have developed an impossibly high standard of competency Therefore, mature paediatric patients can consent to, but not refuse, medical treatment. However, non-academic literature and anecdotal accounts illustrate that mature paediatric patients do refuse treatment in practice.
This research investigates how the law of consent is applied in practice, how paediatric patients understand their ability to refuse medical treatment and what issues paediatric patient encounter when making their health care decisions. To achieve this, this study will conduct interviews with adults who, as children, were paediatric patients.
Eligible participants are adults with an experience as a paediatric patient. Participants will be recruited through an email (sent through universities disability services) and word of mouth (through meeting the student researcher). The participants will NOT be identified through patient records. This study does NOT require contact with an NHS organisation to identify participants. Rather, participants will identify themselves as past paediatric patients on receiving the email or through word of mouth.
All interviews will be audio recorded using a dictaphone. Informed consent will be obtained from all the participants prior to the interview.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0339
Date of REC Opinion
17 May 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion