The answer depends on which province or territory you live in. In most parts of Canada, there is no specific legal age for medical consent, but much depends on the patient’s ability to understand and make decisions regarding their medical condition and treatment in a rational and voluntary capacity.
Here is a list of the provinces that have set a minumum legal age for medical consent:
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| New Brunswick |
A person must be at least 18 years of age or married to consent to surgery in a public hospital. |
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| Prince Edward Island |
The age of consent for medical treatment is 16 years of age. A younger person may consent if, in the opinion of the attending physician or dentist and one other physician or dentist, he or she is capable of understanding the nature and consequences of treatment, and the treatment is in the person's best interests with respect to continued health and well being. |
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| Quebec |
The age of consent is 14 years of age if the treatment is required because of the patient's state of health. For a child under 14 years of age parental consent must be obtained unless a judge orders otherwise or the child's life is in danger. |
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| Saskatchewan |
A person must be at least 18 years of age or married to consent to surgery in a public hospital. |
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 Source: Canadian Medical Association |
For information on the Medical Consent of Minors Act:
http://www.ulcc.ca/en/us/index.cfm?sec=1&sub=1m5
For more information on treatment decisions regarding infants, children and adolescents please reference a statement of the Canadian Paediatric Society:
http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/B/b04-01.htm
The Case of Tyrell Dueck
There is a very interesting discussion of the matter of medical consent for a minor as it pertained to the story of a young Canadian boy named Tyrell Dueck :
http://www.phen.ab.ca/materials/intouch/vol2/intouch2-06.html
The article references and gives some background to this young Saskatchewan boy’s diagnosis and course of treatment of a rare form of cancer. In his case, the parents refused consent to the recommended medical treatment which would have involved chemotherapy and surgery. Tyrell also expressed his refusal of the proposed treatment.
The article goes on to discuss aspects of the case and in this selected ‘quote’ offers a summary insight into the broader legal and ethical parameters of questions relating
to medical consent of minors in Canada.
Consent is a necessary pre-requisite to medical interventions, be they diagnostic or treatment oriented; treatment provided without consent amounts to a legally actionable wrong.2,3,5 Given that there can be no treatment without consent, it follows that a competent adult is entitled to refuse medical treatment.2,3,5 Health care providers are entitled to attempt to persuade their patients that treatment is in their best interests, but providers who treat a patient without consent will be subject to legal penalties. This is true even where the treatment will improve the patient's medical condition and even where without the treatment, the patient would have died.3 Where the patient is a minor, the child's parents, as guardians, are authorized to consent to medical treatment on behalf of their child.1,2,5,9 Parents may also refuse treatment on their child's behalf, but this right of refusal is not absolute.1,2,5,9 Accordingly, in some cases, the courts may intervene to protect the child's best interests. Further, where the child, although a minor, is capable of understanding the nature and consequences of the decision whether or not to accept medical treatment, the child is said to be a "mature minor" and may make his or her own decision. In this situation, the parents have no right to consent to or refuse treatment for the child.
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