By fostering trusting relationships with physicians we are again easing our children's passage into adulthood.
Now to help explain if the teen is mature enough psychologically I will discuss the psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of adolescent functioning. Piaget states that adolescents move from a stage of concrete thinking to one called the period of formal operations. What this means is teens are unable to deal with remote, future of hypothetical problems. But, through repeated results of concrete experiences young teens can begin to be able to predict future experiences (Du Gas, B.W., Esson, L., Ronaldson, S. , 1999). Assigning of one particular solution would be impossible due to the array of developmental levels of teens. Each individual needs to be carefully assessed in relation to their capacity for autonomy and protection of their life to the fullest extent. Physicians have the challenging task of labelling a teen a mature minor or not. We trust our physicians with our lives so why should we not with our children? We need to allow our teens the autonomy of building a trusting relationship with their physician. Such experience was noted by (Sigman, G., et al., 1999) when they stated, "By mid-adolescence, most teens are able to reason like adults, but because of inexperience, may require more guidance in medical decision-making-. The Canadian government has attempted to assist physicians with their difficult decisions. .
The Canadian government realizes there is a vast array of development amongst teens, causing much disarray when it comes to laws regulating confidentiality in such a population. For example, the Canadian Health Care Consent Act makes no reference to age and looks at maturity as a right to rule one mature enough to give autonomous consent (Davis, V., Mykitiuk, R., 1999). There is a fault to this law however, the level of maturity of the teen lies in the subjectivity of the physician, as confidentiality is both the legal and ethical duty of health care providers (Larkin et.
