미성년자에 대한 임상시험과 자기결정권

Clinical Practice on Adolescents and Self-Determination

The legal principle of Informed consent, which originally emerged to ease patient burden of proof in medical treatment, is currently developing in the way of protection of patient self-determination. The right to self-determination on medical treatment is based on the respect of empowerment of the individual regarding his or her body, which is the idea of human dignity stated in the Constitution. Therefore, patient self-determination should be completely secured not only in general health care but also in medical treatment with more possibility of infringing on sanctity of life. All human beings can exercise the right to self-determination on any action related to their own body and infringement of sanctity of life, and such a right should not be violated. As for adolescents, the right to self-determination is always imperative and it can be temporarily restricted only in exceptional cases. In other words, the temporary and tentative abandonment of the right can be considered just when exceptional reasons exist but adolescents can exercise the right without any restriction after the cancellation of the reasons. In case of clinical practice on adolescents, the right to self-determination should be respected more than in case of medical treatment on the general public. Even the right to child custody could be restricted in a certain way when it restrains the right to self-determination of adolescents. The reason is that a person with the right to child custody can be a guardian of benefits of the adolescent but at the same time he or she can be the one who infringes on the right to self-determination of the adolescent.