The minor’s situation in health care

The current situation of the minor in the sanitary field has experienced a change which is parallel to the social evolution. This change spins around the person’s autonomy. There has been a shift from policies of dependence and submission to the parents’ will to promoting the minor’s autonomy. This autonomy is supported in the idea that the minor is progressively getting a development in his/her ability to do and to understand.

As a start, promoting people’s autonomy in general and minors’ in particular provides them with a bigger independence and freedom. But this could generate some conflicts. In the first place, because there isn’t a clear criterion to determine the maturity rate of a minor to know if he/she is able to take decisions on a medical situation. The legislation doesn’t establish the criteria to be used (difficult task), neither the professionals who should make the evaluation, and when there is a reference to the maturity rate it is made in a general way. In the second place the minority is a long period in which the minor goes through very different stages. Even though a great progress in the issue has been made, it is mandatory to set and harmonize the legal code to reach to more well-balanced solutions.