Children's participation in their healthcare & legal environments

Dr Rebecca Limb is a lecturer in law at Southampton University and an Academic Fellow of Middle Temple, with an area of interest in child medical law. She poses questions such as should children be lawfully permitted to refuse and consent to medical treatment? What forms of medical treatment should be within the scope of children’s consent? Should children be able to consent to being a live and/or deceased organ donor? Should terminally ill children be assisted by a physician to end their life?

Her work has redesigned the sociological theory of children’s participation for a child medical law context. She supports children’s participation in their healthcare, both in a clinical and legal environment. She has recently written a book (forthcoming in 2025, Hart publishers) examining the participation of 18 past-paediatric patients in their healthcare as children to identify practical and legal barriers to participation. From this work she identified a huge barrier to children’s participation was their knowledge of their legal rights. Rebecca created an impact project where she delivers creative art workshops to children aged 8 – 18 educating them about their medical law rights. Initial data from the study is positive with the majority a month later feeling more informed about their rights and willing to speak up if they felt their rights were not being met.

Student members (including transferring lawyers) must attend all elements of the event in order to be awarded the Qualifying Session. This includes any lecture/talk/reception/dinner/speeches.

Members of the Inn only

Click here to see details of the QS Requirements and how to be credited with the QS for this session

Learning Aims

After this session, students should be able to:

• Identify the sociological theory of children’s participation in a child medical law context.
• Examine the questions posed by Dr Rebecca Limb

Links to the Professional Statement, wider workings of the Bar, administration of justice or a public interest matter

1.3

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