Gillick competence

Badge worn by some in protest against Gillick's campaign in the early 1980s. Here, the call to "Reverse Gillick" refers to reversing the Court of Appeal judgment, not the subsequent House of Lords judgment that overturned it.

Gillick competence is a term originating in England and Wales and is used in medical law to decide whether a child (a person under 16 years of age) is able to consent to their own medical treatment, without the need for parental permission or knowledge.

The standard is based on the 1985 judicial decision of the House of Lords with respect to a case of the contraception advice given by an NHS doctor in Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority.[1] The case is binding in England and Wales, and has been adopted to varying extents in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.[2][3] Similar provision is made in Scotland by the Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991. In Northern Ireland, although separate legislation applies, the then Department of Health and Social Services stated that there was no reason to suppose that the House of Lords' decision would not be followed by the Northern Ireland courts.

  1. ^ "Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA [1985] UKHL 7". British and Irish Legal Information Institute. 1985. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Gillick and the Consent of Minors: Contraceptive Advice and Treatment in New Zealand" (PDF). Victoria University of Wellington Law Review. 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  3. ^ Lennings, Nicholas J. (13 July 2015). "Are competent children autonomous medical decision makers? New developments in Australia". Journal of Law and the Biosciences. 2 (2): 459–468. doi:10.1093/jlb/lsv028. PMC 5034372. PMID 27774207.