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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Children’s Developmental (Im)maturity: Aligning Conflicting Decisional Capacity Assessment Approaches in Australia
Laws, Vol.12(1), pp.1-20
2023
Abstract
Children’s decision making is complex. There are many factors that contribute to children’s decisional capacity including cognitive reasoning, developmental maturity, upbringing and circumstances. For healthcare decisions, Australian law acknowledges children’s autonomy, and permits mature children to consent to beneficial healthcare. Yet, it also protects them from making life changing decisions that could contravene their best interests. The criminal law approaches to children’s decision making in Australia’s jurisdictions involves holding older children fully responsible for their decision making, regardless of circumstances or maturity. The two approaches conflict because health law offers a protective mechanism for children yet criminal law imposes a punitive approach to children’s decision making. This article considers whether the dichotomous approaches for children’s capacity assessments in Australian law can be reconciled.
Details
- Title
- Children’s Developmental (Im)maturity: Aligning Conflicting Decisional Capacity Assessment Approaches in Australia
- Authors
- Dominique Moritz (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
- Publication details
- Laws, Vol.12(1), pp.1-20
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.3390/laws12010010
- ISSN
- 2075-471X
- Copyright note
- © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99706098202621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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