Medical Decision-Making on Behalf of Children in China: A Multidimensional Analysis of Parental Authoritarianism

According to the sixth national population census conducted in 2010, in China, the number of children aged 0–14 years was 222,459,737, accounting for 16.60 per cent of the total population, and the overall number of children (ie including those up to 18 years) was close to 400 million. Do Chinese children have the right to patient autonomy? Given the developing autonomy of children associated with their age and maturity, to what extent should they participate in medical decision-making? How should disagreements between minor patients, their guardians and medical practitioners be solved? How should their parents or guardians as legal representatives make proxy medical decisions when children are unable to decide for themselves? What are the proper roles of the state (the judiciary in particular) in protecting children in cases involving medical decision-making on behalf of children? Had cases similar to those of Charlie Gard or Alfie Evans occurred in China, would courts intervene in parental decisions? And if so, how? Despite the importance of these questions, they have not attracted extensive attention and discussion among scholars and the public in China....