Abstract
Adults who give proxy consent for medical treatment for adolescents must decide how much weight to give to adolescents' own preferences. There is evidence that some adolescents choose treatments different from what adults see as most reasonable. It is argued that adolescents choose according to age-specific values, i.e. values they hold, as adolescents, and which fulfil important developmental needs. Because not fulfilling these needs may do serious psychological damage, it is urged that proxies give weight to these values, up to the limit where it would endanger or profoundly limit future life.
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References
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A very brief version of this article has been published as Chapter 3 of Forman EN, Ladd RE.Ethical Dilemmas in Pediatrics: A Case Study Approach. New York: Springer-Verlag. 1991, reprinted by University Press of America, 1995.
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Ladd, R.E., Forman, E.N. Adolescent decision-making: Giving weight to age-specific values. Theor Med Bioeth 16, 333–345 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00995480
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00995480