Informed Consent in Decision-Making in Pediatric Practice

Abstract

This Policy Statement was reaffirmed January 2023. Informed consent should be seen as an essential part of health care practice; parental permission and childhood assent is an active process that engages patients, both adults and children, in health care. Pediatric practice is unique in that developmental maturation allows, over time, for increasing inclusion of the child’s and adolescent’s opinion in medical decision-making in clinical practice and research.