Coercion or caring: analysing adolescent autonomy

Abstract

The judgment of the House of Lords in Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority appeared to usher in an era ofjudicial respect for children's rights and the autonomy of the older child. Just a decade later the decisions of the Court of Appeal in Re R and Re W were perceived as signalling a reversion to judicial paternalism and dealing a near fatal blow to adolescent autonomy. The fundamental philosophy of the Children Act 1989 itself, in which the wishes of children and the ‘rights’ of the more mature minor play such a central part, came under attack in a continuing series of cases at first instance where judges overruled the judgments of older children in favour of the judgment of their doctors.