The empowerment of children: who decides?

While the health and well-being of children in general continues to improve, there remains a definitive health care divide. In the UK one-quarter of all children live in abject poverty, their lives shortened by the deleterious effects of poverty on life expectancy. Regardless of their background, children are united by common features of childhood, one being the concept of children as immature adults and, therefore, incapable of making important decisions. Such concepts are not conducive to the development of children as rational individuals with the ability to reason and make appropriate judgements. Thus, it is the aim of this paper to identify the internal and external forces which prevent the empowerment of children, more specifically the empowerment of children to make decisions about health care choices. The presumption is that the exposure of obstructive elements will reveal the vital components required to provide children with the privilege of choice. Although legislation such as the Children Act 1989 has sought to empower children by recognizing that the child has a 'voice', there remains the potential for conflict to arise when the child 'fails to conform' to popular opinion. Moreover, it is possible that without explicit empowerment, those in a position of assumed power will seek to overrule the child.