Medical Consent for a Minor

Basic Consent

• When you take your child to the doctor or hospital, you must fill out a stack of paperwork before treatment. In addition to medical history information, you also sign a document stating your relationship to the child and that you're authorized to provide consent. Some providers make copies of your driver's license as well. After signing the document, you usually provide verbal authorization for medical procedures, although you might be required to sign a waiver for procedures that require anesthesia, for example. Your minor child cannot give her own consent in most cases, nor can she refuse treatment; if you consent, she must undergo the treatment.

Other Care Providers

• When you leave your child with another care provider, such as with his grandmother while you travel out of town, she doesn't automatically have the authority to consent to treatment for your child. You must sign a medical authorization naming her as your designated consenting adult in your absence to ensure she can make medical decisions when necessary. Without this form, hospitals or doctors might refuse non-emergency treatment until they can reach you. In divorce situations, the non-custodial parent or stepparents often need a medical authorization form as well. Divorced parents with joint custody have equal medical decision-making power.

Common Exceptions

• When your child is experiencing a true emergency, often defined as one that could rob her of life or limb, a medical professional can treat her without your consent. The doctor might require consent for providing continued care, such as pain medicine, but not for immediate, life-saving needs. In many states, when your child gets older, she won't need your consent for sexually transmitted disease tests, birth control, prenatal care or abortions. Outpatient mental health care is often available to minors without parental consent or notification.

Emancipated Minors

• When your child is old enough to become emancipated, or self-sufficient, he will no longer need your consent for medical treatment. This occurs with minors who are in the military, are married or live on their own and support themselves without parental assistance. Some states, such as Ohio and Washington, allow doctors to decide if a minor is mature enough to give informed consent when parents aren't present. It's unlikely a doctor would allow your 11-year-old to consent to medical procedures, but she might consider a 17-year-old with a broken arm mature enough to consent to having a cast put on. Doctors make this determination on a case-by-case basis.