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Kayla Briceno

Ms. Gardner

Honors English 10, Period 6

9 May 2017

Grow as a Country: Grant Minors With Patients Rights

If it is the medical providers job to act in the best interest of the patient, why is it that minors

are forced to undergo a specific treatment against their will? Or why is it that they don't have a choice in

what treatment they undergo? Parents, or adults in general, don't always know best. Are they the ones

feeling the pain, and living day to day having to undergo recruited treatments? Patients rights enable a

medical patient to have a complete consent and say in what treatment plan they choose; however, this

right is restricted to minors. People need to understand that it should be in the best interest of the patient,

what happens to the patient, no matter what their age is. Many states, such as Connecticut and New York,

grant the right to all citizens eighteen or older to possess the effective consent on medical treatment,

which leaves out those who are under the age of eighteen, also classified as minors. Although many

people would argue that patients who are minors do not have the necessary knowledge and judgement to

decide their medical treatment plan, the ability for minors to decide what happens to their own body

provides them with power, hope, and comfort.

Initially, many adults would argue that minors do not have the proper judgement and knowledge

needed to critically decide on a medical treatment plan for themselves. For example, a Chicago teen,

Cassandra failed to convince the court that she was mature enough to come to such a serious conclusion

since it appeared that she lives under the thumb of her mother(Chicago Tribune). These conclusions

were made as the teen brought up a couple of questions regarding the matter: How long is a person

actually supposed to live, and why? Who determines that? It is hard to disagree with the court, as this

comment may initiate utter ignorance and disrespect towards the judge. Additionally, research shows that
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this right should be placed on the parents, since they are supposed to ensure that child comes to no

harm(Blackwell). This statement can easily be supported, as adults are more experienced and

knowledgeable, and their best interest at heart is their children. To summarize, adults consider minors to

be too immature and underdeveloped to make critical decisions. Though these claims may be true, it

would not be impossible to aide minors in making a call between life or death by providing them with

sufficient medical knowledge. While it is true that many adults believe that minors are incapable of

making critical decisions, patients rights for minors enables them to have the power, hope, and comfort,

which adults are legally granted with.

Admittedly, minors may lack essential judgment and knowledge necessary to make a life or death

decision. Nevertheless, when one considers how demeaning this may seem to a minors sense of power

and dignity, it is difficult to oppose the rights of patients who are minors. In looking at how to empower

kids to make logical medical decisions, it is argued that, Children should participate in health decisions,

he agreed, but to be involved, it's really important that they're able to think critically about the options we

have, he said. The two things go hand in hand. When minors are given resourceful medical

information, the rightful thing to do is to allow them to have the power of choosing what is to be done to

them (Barton). By granting this power and right to minors, their mental and physical state will improve

dramatically. The ability of making a decision on their own can be very fulfilling, and with this they feel

accomplished and proud for fighting for the things that they want. Another example deals with a

seventeen year old leukemia patient who was granted the right to deny treatment, as a result of her deep

passion for a family religion. The judge granted her this because A psychologist testified that the girl had

the maturity of a 22-year-old. Typically in cases like these the minor is granted full medical consent if,

the minor is able to understand the consequences of the treatment, the minor is older, the treatment is to

the benefit of the patient, and the procedures are low risk for the most part (Encyclopedia). If knowledge

and judgment is the issue, provide the minors with these resources, so they can come to these medical
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conclusions on their own, while also feeling strong and powerful in doing so. Based on this information, it

is evident that allowing minors with this right effectively boosts their morale and uplifts them with a

sensation of power and strength. In summation, if providing minors with this right to choose enhances

their sense of power and strength, why would health care providers and judges reject the patient's wishes,

while deteriorating their psyche?

Furthermore, real life experiences show that this right provides the patient with a great deal of

hope. A teen, Zoe Fleetwood, requested that her body be frozen through a process called cryonics

because she had great hope that she would soon return to life when scientists found a cure for her life

threatening disease. Upon being granted this wish, Fleetwood called the judge her hero, as it provided

her with great hope for the future. When asked about the chance of success the response was, somewhere

between zero to one hundred. Though these chances were small in her favor, they still gave the patient

what she desired (de Freytas- Tamura). Once again it is evident that this right and power to choose is

essential in making the patients psyche and emotional state uplift. Hope is something that drives many

people, not only minors. The idea of always being something better in the future motivates people to go

on and make decisions accordingly. When health is at stake, declares physician, Val Jones MD,

presenting information with the right amount of hope can guide patients away from both suffering

needlessly and/or succumbing to treatable disease. Jones further states that Hope provides the energy to

course correct, to fight battles that can be won, and to hold on to trust in a brighter future. It is especially

important for minors to have hope, as they are young and they have yet to experience half of the

incredible phenomenons that exist in our very world. To summarize, the right for minors to choose what

happens to them medically is fulfilling, and provides the patient with hope for a better and pain free

future. As a result, this right illuminates the free will and good spirit of the patient. Who would want to

crush a minor's hopes and dreams by forcing them to do something that blockades these aspirations?
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Ultimately, patients who are minors should be able to decide on their treatment plan because it

gives them great comfort in choosing what is done to their body. In most cases minors are left in

excruciating pain without a choice, as they have no say in what is physically being done to them, which is

completely unacceptable. The state does not have the right to force [her] to endure physical and

emotional pain, declares Risham Dhillon, journalist for The Harvard Crimson, regardless of how pure

the intentions. The end doesn't always justify the means. While the end which symbolizes the courts

final decisions, may seem like the right choice for the minor, it ultimately may hurt the patient a lot more

than it makes them feel better. In this case the parents of a patient Sarah, decided to end treatment because

they noticed immense destruction to their little girl, they ceased the treatments in June because she asked

them to stop. It put her down for two days, Andy Hershberger, Sarahs father, said. She was not like

her normal self. We just thought we cannot do this to her (Church & State). Based on this true story, it

is apparent that the humanly thing to do is support the patient in their decision, even if they are a minor.

People should be concerned with the comfort of the patient, rather than their age. What if it were the other

way around, where the children would choose the treatment plan for their parents? The parents would

want their children to choose something that makes them comfortable and feel less pain, but most likely

the parents would want to have their own say in the matter because it is their body, and they would want

to choose what happens to it. My aunt who passed away last week was in a tremendous deal of pain;

however, her children had complete medical consent for her treatment. It broke my heart to see that they

refused in letting their own mother receive morphine to lighten the pain she was feeling. Though these

were not their ultimate intentions, in fact their decision was driven through superstition and a myth about

morphine, it was still their own mom and it should have been in their best interest to make their mom feel

comfortable and less painful. Ultimately, listening to the patient puts them at ease, and comforts them

because they are being heard, and because it brings less pain to the body. Therefore, rejecting this right to
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minors would be cruel and evil because forcing them into a certain treatment may cause them more harm

and pain than good and comfort.

In conclusion, minors should have the right to decide on their treatment plan because this right

grants them with power, hope, and comfort. Forcing a patient to have something done to their body that is

unwanted is cruel and dehumanizing, both physically and mentally. In other words, the whole rejection of

this right to minors is completely unethical. Though it is arguable that minors may have underdeveloped

judgement, and may not fully understand their actions, they are the patients, and they are the ones affected

by the treatment. Most people do not know the pain and suffering these minors are facing each day, so

treatment should not be forced upon the patient when the patient no longer wants to proceed. Even if the

patient wishes to proceed with treatment, that should be up to them because it is their body, and they

deserve a say in what is being done to them medically. If the patients knowledge and understanding is

questionable, the most logical thing to do is provide the minor with the education and the critical thinking

skills needed, before they make a life or death decision. What happens to the patient should be up to the

patient, no matter what age they are. The time has come for the country as a whole to grow as a society

and enable this right to minors.

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Works Cited

Barton, Adriana. "Small Doses: How to Empower Kids to make Informed Health

Decisions." Globe and Mail, 24 Oct, 2016, pp. L.1, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Blackwell, Tom. "Parents Don't always Know Best, Hospitals Say." National Post, 08

Oct, 2014, pp. A.1, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

"Court Intervenes in Cancer Treatment of Ohio Amish Child." Church & State, Oct,

2013, pp. 21, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

de Freytas-Tamura, Kimiko. "Wish of Girl, 14, to be Frozen is Granted by British

Judge." New York Times, 19 Nov, 2016, pp. A.7, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Dhillon, Risham. "Raw Truths, Instinct, and Justice: The Cassandra C. Case." University

Wire, 28 Jan, 2015, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Jones, Val Why We Need Hope in Health Care. KevinMD.com, Val Jones MD, 4 Jan.

2017, www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/03/need-hope-health-care.html.

Patients' Rights. West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Encyclopedia.com,

www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/law/patients-rights.

"Saving a Teen from Cancer...and Her Own Impulses." Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan, 2015,

pp. 20, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.