Legal, Medical, Ethical Question - Emancipation

[AnatomyChick]

OK..so I posed a question to my EMT students..and WOW did it ever start a discussion. Here's the question:

You are providing care for a 15 year old female who is pregnant. What type of consent would you be seeking from her?

Here are some clarifying points that my students wanted to know. She is Engaged to the "Baby Daddy", She is conscious and complaining of Abdominal Pain.

What say ye?

[island emt]

Who cares if she is engaged to the sperm donor. If he is over 18 then it's a case of statutory rape of a minor. 15 yo can't legally consent.

Not sure what you are asking about consent?

Your title states emancipation.

If she is truly an emancipated minor with the court documentation to prove it , then she has the legal ability to make her own decisions,

If no documentation then the parents or guardian should be contacted.

If they are not available, then a call to the ER DOC is in order to explain what is going on and asking them for permission to treat life threatening medical issues.

Pass the responsibility to the Doc & let them figure out the legalities.

Edited March 7, 2013 by island emt

[ERDoc]

In most, if not all, states a pregnant teenager is considered her own medical decision maker. Her engagement is irrelevant to anyone but the caterer. Exact laws vary from state to state but overall, you do not need parental consent to treat a pregnant minor. The legal definition of statutory rape also varies from state to state, so be careful there Island. You also bring up life threatening issues. The pregnant minor can refuse based on the same reasoning, however a nonpregnant minor CANNOT refuse treatment so you do not need to contact anyone for life threatening issues, it is called implied consent.

[island emt]

Hi Doc: I didn't mean to make a blanket statement like that. In the five states I've held a license to practice a 15 yo is considered a minor unable to provide consent or deny care or treatment of life threatening injury/illness.

In all of those same states a 15 yo who had sex with a legal adult is considered to have been statutorily raped as they are not capable of consent. If she was 16 then the law is applied differently for some reason.

I don't make the laws or even understand all of them. Just try to follow them the best we can.

We dealt with a 13 yo who had CC of abd pain. At first we were leaning towards appendicitis , until she said " I could be pregnant"

We transported and made our report to the ER DOC and explained our conversation to the DOC

. Come to find out the pt had been molested for several years by an adult and it finally caught up with him.

Last I knew , he's doing 50 in the state pen for statutory rape of a minor under 15 yo.

[paramedicmike]

A minor female who is pregnant is considered legally emancipated in any state in which I've worked.

[ERDoc]

Island, have you only worked in the northeast? Check out the statutory rape laws in some of the southern states. Scary shit. Check out the wording for Mississippi.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/08/sr/statelaws/statelaws.shtml

[island emt]

Been in northern New England all of my career.

I do know there are places where first cousins are allowed to legally marry & reproduce.

As the old story goes::: "Mommy ,why do you call Uncle Billy Daddy..????

message to self::: If you hear banjo's playing in the night::: run away quickly

Edited March 8, 2013 by island emt

[ERDoc]

LOL. There are a few states where it is not statutory rape if you have intercourse with someone under 12, as long as they are your spouse.

[island emt]

makes ya proud to be a merican don't it

Wasn't that religious cult down in Texas full of 10 to 12 YO brides having babies a couple years ago.

When the sounds of banjo music surround you run very far and fast & don't look back.

[ERDoc]

Not to get too far off topic but sometimes you have to wonder if both parts of the country would be better off if the south had won the war. So to the OP questions, here are some additional resources:

http://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/ems/policy/99-09.htm

http://hvrs.comcastbiz.net/emtclass/EMTClassPDF/MedicalLegalEthicalissues.pdf

Here is an interesting one that would have been a good one to find when we were talking about the guy who cut his leg off (Dwyane's thread I beleive):

http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/perspectives/HealthPolicy/990331Emergency.html