Informed consent by children: the new reality.

Abstract

Recent legislative changes in British Columbia and New Brunswick allow children to make their own decisions about health care, something that used to be the prerogative of their parents. In this article, Eike-Henner Kluge argues that the changes hold profound implications for physicians. He says they increase the responsibility placed on doctors, who must now consider whether a child is indeed competent, and whether the decision made by a competent child is indeed in the child's best interests.