File(s) under permanent embargo
Legal issues: minors' decision-making capacity to refuse life-saving and life-sustaining treatment: legal and psychiatric perspectives
Laws in Belgium and the Netherlands permit euthanasia and assisted suicide for seriously ill children who experience "constant and unbearable suffering" – they have the capacity to request death by lethal injection if they convey a "reasonable understanding of the consequences" of that request. The child's capacity to understand death is therefore a prerequisite to the implementation of the request. However, modern neuro-psychological and fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies of the relationship between the neuro-anatomical development of the brain in human beings and their emotional and experiential capacity, demonstrates that both are not fully developed until the early 20s for girls and mid-20s for boys. Unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, the clinical and legal implications of the immaturity of the brain on medical decision-making of minors, in particular life and death decisions, have been implicit in the Australian courts' approach to the refusal of life-saving and life-sustaining treatment by minors. This approach is exemplified by X v Sydney Children's Hospitals Network [2013] NSWCA 320 (and a series of earlier cases).
History
Journal
Journal of law and medicineVolume
21Issue
4Pagination
762 - 773Publisher
Thomson ReutersLocation
Rozelle, NSWISSN
1320-159XLanguage
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal articleCopyright notice
2014, Thomson ReutersEditor/Contributor(s)
I HaywoodUsage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedLicence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC