title: Informed consent for children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Consent has always been an essential element in the physician-child/parent relationship, more importantly as an ethical duty than as a legal requirement, and continues to represent the most important form of communication between children and parents and physicians.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main themes described in this review - the age of competence to give consent and the role of the parents in giving consent - constitute the complex situation of consent in paediatrics. Refusal by children and parents and consent by children for participation in clinical research studies are also discussed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review supports the moral viewpoint that minors with decision-making capacity, regardless of their age, should be involved in their healthcare decisions, even if the law is to have consent from parents or legal guardians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Surgical, Intensive Care 2, Pontchaillou Hospital, University of Rennes, France. cEcoffey.rennes@invivo.edu
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ecoffey
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dalens