Consent for Children. Children are separate persons from their parents and possess a separate set of legal rights.²⁷ Parent's rights cannot override child's rights.^53 54 Children are legally incompetent persons so parents usually grant informed permission for diagnosis and treatment on behalf of children.^19 35 48 When parents bring a child to a doctor, it is the child who is the patient and not the parents.^18 19 30 The doctor's responsibilities are to his child-patient and to no one else.^{4 18 19 52} The doctor's responsibility to the child-patient is paramount.^42 52 When parents decide about treatment for a child, that decision must be made in the child's best interests.^{19 30 34 35 38 52 53} Children must be involved in the decision.^{15 18 19 23 30 52} Non-essential procedures should be delayed until the the child is mature enough to decide.^19 52 Moreover, parental power to grant permission for treatment is less extensive than if the parent was granting permission for his or her own treatment.^19 52 Parents may only grant permission for diagnosis and treatment of disease.¹⁹³⁵

Consent for child circumcision. The current practice of the medical community is to obtain permission from a parent for circumcision of a child. (In the United Kingdom and British Columbia the permission of both parents is required.)^52 53

The medical community has long based this protocol for obtaining consent on the assumption that a parent may legitimately give consent to the non-therapeutic circumcision of a child. There is, however, no basis in law to support this assumption. A male neonatal circumcision is neither a diagnostic procedure nor a treatment of a disease.^19 36 Thus non-therapeutic circumcision is, in effect, an act of battery. No parent can grant consent for an act of battery. By this reasoning, "parental consent" for a non-therapeutic, non-diagnostic circumcision operation on a child appears to be invalid. However, a court decision would be necessary to resolve the question.

Further, it is not clear how medically unnecessary non-therapeutic circumcision can be in the best interest of any particular child. A court ruling in the United Kingdom held that a circumcision was not in the best interest of a particular child.⁵²