The mature minor

Abstract

Mature minor is a term that designates adolescents who are minors from the legal point of view, but who have sufficient capacity to be involved in medical and other type of decision making. It is acquiring increasing importance, given the active participation of adolescents in our society and the patient's right to health care information. On the contrary to that which occurs in the adult, in whom the autonomy capacity is supposed, the minor must demonstrate his/her capacity and moral maturity and this verification is up to the patient's responsible physician. We will establish a series of questions and the most frequent problems in the clinical practice and will give a series of considerations on the doctrine of the mature minor, ages with some type of significance, Law 41/2002 and grade of maturity.