Informed consent required prior to medical treatment for minors

There are various professionals that perform different services in Arizona. These professionals train to learn a certain trade or to provide certain services so they can provide it for others who do not understand how to do a certain things. One of these services that most people do not understand is how to diagnose and treat medical problems that occur throughout their lives. Therefore, they go to doctors and mother medical professionals who have gone through extensive training to learn how to treat various illnesses and injuries.

While people go to doctors to receive their medical expertise and to treat various ailments that they do not understand, ultimately patients still make the final decisions about their bodies. Therefore, prior to performing medical treatment, doctors and other medical professionals need to obtain informed consent to perform the treatment before it starts. This is true for all patients as well, including minors. However, in the case of minors, the informed consent may also have to come from the parents as well.

Informed consent means that the proposed medical treatment must be explained to the patient and their parents in a way that they can understand the risks and benefits of the treatment. Then the patient and their parents must make a voluntary decisions about whether to proceed with the treatment. There are situations when consent could be implied by past consent and history of treatment with a patient, but anything that is different from the past treatment requires additional informed consent.

Minors just like adults in Arizona require medical treatment and doctors still must obtain informed consent prior to performing medical treatment. However, consent from parents may be needed in addition to consent from the patient when the patient is a minor. If doctors proceed with medical treatment without informed consent, they could face medical malpractice lawsuits, especially if something goes wrong with the medical treatment. Experienced attorneys understand these requirements and when doctors do not do their jobs properly. They may be a helpful resource.