title: Normative analysis of the voice of children in Brazilian child protection legislation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to identify and analyse children's voices in healthcare decision making in the discourse of Brazil's child protection laws.
  
  
  METHODS
  Documentary normative analysis of Brazil's child protection legislation (1988-2012) based on the content analysis of nine texts, conducted in 2015.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The legislation acknowledges and stresses the voice of children in the decision-making process in research and healthcare. Any recognition of the right to dignity, liberty, information, and protection depends on what the adult decision-maker (with parental authority) believes is the child's capacity for discernment and whether the situation will cause self-harm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  the normative child protection discourse grants children a voice, although with restrictions and under the authority of the adult with parental authority.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Escola de Enfermagem Anna Nery, Programa de Pós-graduação em Enfermagem. Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
authors.forename: Renata de Moura
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bubadué
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Escola de Enfermagem Anna Nery, Departamento Materno Infantil. Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
authors.forename: Ivone Evangelista
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Cabral
authors.affiliation: McGill University, Ingram School of Nursing. Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Carnevale
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Instituto de Medicina Social, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
authors.forename: Felipe Dutra
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Asensi
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D000068216:Child Protective Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans