ACHLR 10th Annual Public Oration - Professor Emma Cave

Australian Centre for Health Law Research

The oration considers how the sufficiency of young adults’ autonomy is judged in light of biological, social and psychological evidence that adolescence can continue into the mid 20s. Adolescence can impact on developmental immaturity which can in turn affect risk taking, impulsivity, and independence in decision making. Some areas of law are starting to accommodate the impacts of adolescence into adulthood.

Professor Cave looks at how they do so and whether the law relating to medical treatment refusals in England and Wales might also adapt. She proposes that the right to full decision-making about medical treatment refusals at 18 based on the adult status of the individual should accommodate greater sensitivity to individual developmental attributes and set out some of the steps necessary to achieve this.