Parental Consent To Medical Treatment

This week the government has published a report on how it makes decisions about which vaccines to fund. For a long time, charities and campaigners have been lobbying for this report to be published. It also follows calls for greater transparency about why a vaccine to protect children against Meningitis B was not made more widely available and an 820,000 signature petition calling for all children to be vaccinated following the death of 2 year old Faye Burdett in 2016, who was not offered the vaccine because she was "too old".

A public consultation will now run until 21 May 2018.

This is not the first time vaccinations and whether they are recommended by the government has been the subject of widespread controversy. It is not that long ago that the MMR vaccine was under the spotlight and despite the fact it was funded and recommended by the government, many parents chose not to give their children it.

So what happens if a government recommended vaccine is available, but parents can't agree on whether their child should have it?

The law places a responsibility on those with parental rights and responsibilities to safeguard and promote their child's health, development and welfare; and it gives them corresponding rights to fulfil such responsibility, independently of anyone else with parental rights and responsibilities, including in most cases the other parent. A duty is placed on such persons, in reaching any major decision involving a child to take account of the views of that other person, but:

there are no set definitions of what...

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