Gemeinschaftsmedizin und Gesundheitserziehung

Abstrakt

Autonomy of the Child in the South African Context

Chad Beyer

Access to healthcare for all members of society is a right enshrined in the South African Constitution. Worldwide policy makers are beginning to lower the age of consent to medical treatment in response to the changes within society as well as to fulfil international obligations. The age of full legal capacity in South Africa is 18, when section 129 of the Children’s Act of 2005 came into effect it empowered children over the age of 12 with the capacity to consent to medical treatment, if they are deemed to possess “sufficient maturity”. This article examines the legal and philosophical approaches to the consent of children, with a focus on the South African context. Furthermore, it looks at the development of the adolescent brain to see if functional neuroimaging has presented us with an answer to the question of adolescent’s functional capacity for consent.