Informed Consent, Parental Permission, and Assent in Pediatric Practice

Abstract

As the author of the first draft of the recently published Academy statement, Informed Consent, Parental Permission, and Assent in Pediatric Practice,1 I would like to comment on several of the "qualifying" or "clarifying" additions that have been made in this statement during its decade long struggle to gain Academy approval. I am particularly concerned about the possible misinterpretation of three of these additions. The first addition is the statement, "Parents and physicians should not exclude children and adolescents from decision-making without persuasive reasons"