Adolescent autonomy, detention for medical treatment and Re C.

Abstract

Does an adolescent suffering from anorexia have the 'right' to refuse life-saving treatment and have the 'right' to die?' Does she have autonomy in these circumstances the right to grant or refuse medical treatment? Do English courts have the right to authorise that adolescent's detention and the use of reasonable force to effect life-saving treatment? These issues faced the High Court in the case of Re C,2 concerning C, a 16-year-old anorexic girl. It aroused considerable media attention because it was reported as being the first case where a court had ruled that it had jurisdiction to authorise the forcible detention of a child at common law (and therefore outside the Mental Health Act) in order for that child to receive medical treatment. Yet this was not the first such case. In Re W (A Minor) (Consent to Medical Treatment)3 the Court of Appeal had declared (somewhat controversially) that while 16-year-olds could consent to treatment they could not refuse such treatment if the circumstances were such that the court considered them incom-