Children's Bodily Autonomy

On the Right to Desired Medical Care, and the Right to Say No

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The 9th Amendment reads: “The enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Which is to say; just because a right isn't explicitly listed, does not mean it should be denied or infringed upon.

Bodily Integrity is a long-held (and in many ways, legally protected) human right. Bodily Autonomy is, by most first world countries and international human rights foundations, also considered a basic human right.

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But what about the rights of children?

The Mature Minor Doctrine is a commonly found rule of law in the US and Canada. The UK has a legal precedent called Gillick Competency. Both establish that minors of age 16 and over, and sometimes even younger, have the right to make decisions over their own body. They state of statutes regarding, “Who may consent [or withhold consent for] surgical or medical treatment or procedures,” that, “Any unemancipated minor of sufficient intelligence to understand and appreciate the consequences of the proposed surgical or medical treatment or procedures, [may choose so] for himself.”

Right now, a war is raging. Many are seeking to strip fellow humans of these fundamental rights, often based on age, gender, and medical status.

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Take, for example, gender affirming care. Gynecomastia is a condition wherein cisgender boys grow breasts at puberty. The current medical guidelines are to perform a nipple-preserving mastectomy. Which qualifies, quite plainly, as gender-affirming care. To reduce distress in male children, surgery is allowed to make their bodies align with their gender. But heavens forbid a transgender teenager be put on hormone blockers – a safe medication with no long term side effects – to affirm their gender!

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Or take, for example, the abortion bans sweeping the nation. Most ban abortions regardless of age, even in cases of risk to the pregnant person's life, and in doing so put child victims of sexual assault at risk. But note, in both precedents to bodily autonomy, that the younger the minor is, the less likely the ability to make decisions for oneself applies. These precedents would imply that the older one is, the more legal protection to bodily autonomy and medical care one should have. So then why would a fetus, much less a zygote, have more rights to bodily autonomy than a child, preteen, or adolescent, much less a fully grown adult?

This discussion is important for many reasons. Not only do adults deserve protection over bodily autonomy, but children and adolescents do as well. Many of the states currently banning gender-affirming care also hold precedents that minors, especially adolescents, hold the right to informed consent medical care. In fact, Bodily Autonomy such a well recognized right that corpses cannot have organs taken from them without prior consent, even to safe another human life. Should living humans really have less rights than a corpse?

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All of which is to say: Let people control their own bodies. Just because it's not explicitly protected under the constitution, doesn't mean it isn't a human right.

And most importantly, teach your children about it. 

The more they know, the better they can work to keep their rights.

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