Submitted by Sara Hayes on Wednesday 11th March 2026
Published on Friday 10th April 2026
Current status: Open
Open until: Saturday 10th October 2026
Current Signatures: 40
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Relevant Departments
Tagged with
aged ~ Capacity ~ Children ~ Entitled ~ GCSE ~ Healthcare ~ Medic ~ Parent ~ Personality ~ Pressure ~ Raise ~ Young people
Raise the age when children take control of their own health care and treatments
Currently, people aged 16 or over are entitled to consent to their own treatment and can make decisions on treatments without parental involvement. This can only be overruled in exceptional circumstances.
I would like this age raised to 18 or at least give parent and children joint control.
Like adults, young people (aged 16/17) are presumed to have sufficient capacity to decide on their own medical treatment, unless there's significant evidence to suggest otherwise.
However, I believe that this could be too much pressure on the young person given the pressures that are already on them, including GCSEs & leaving school.
Young people that have additional medical issues may find it extremely difficult to take over control of prescriptions and appointments on top of these pressures
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
216.73.216.231 Thu, 25 Jun 2026 02:23:22 +0100