Ontario proposes draft legislation regarding consent to health care services

1979 The Ontario Interministerial Committee on Medical Consent made several recommendations with respect to consent for health care services in the province. Among these was a recommendation that the age of 16 be established as the age of consent for health care services. Children under the age of 16 would be presumed unable to consent to health care services, and a substitute decision maker (usually the parent or guardian) would be required to act in good faith, taking both the best interests and wishes of the child into account. The “good faith” standard for substitute decision makers applied to anyone making decisions on behalf of an incompentent person, not only to parents making decisions on behalf of their children.

With respect to substitute decision making, the Ontario Interministerial Committee recommended that certain medical and surgical procedures be excluded from those for which substitute consent was valid. Among these was non-therapeutic sterilization, and the Committee gave the following reason for it’s decision:

Non-therapeutic sterilization, in this context, means sterilization performed for contraceptive reasons, where the procedure is not necessary to preserve the physical health of the recipient. Recent court decisions in England and Canada have affirmed that neither parents not the courts can authorize non-therapeutic sterilization of someone unable to provide an informed consent. “Therapeutic,” in the Canadian context, has been restrictively defined as “the preservation of life or the safeguarding of endangered health.” “Clear and unequivocal statutory authority” is necessary to authorize the performance of this procedure in these circumstances.

It was also recommended that non-therapeutic experimentation, transplantation, and psychosurgery be excluded from those procedures for which substitute consent was valid.

-Caroline Lyster

  • Ontario Interminsterial Committee on Medical Consent. (1979). Options on Medical Consent, Part 2: Recommendations and Draft Legislation. Government of Ontario.

Ontario proposes draft legislation regarding consent to health care services

1979 The Ontario Interministerial Committee on Medical Consent made several recommendations with respect to consent for health care services in the province. Among these was a recommendation that the age of 16 be established as the age of consent for health care services. Children under the age of 16 would be presumed unable to consent to health care services, and a substitute decision maker (usually the parent or guardian) would be required to act in good faith, taking both the best interests and wishes of the child into account. The “good faith” standard for substitute decision makers applied to anyone making decisions on behalf of an incompentent person, not only to parents making decisions on behalf of their children.

With respect to substitute decision making, the Ontario Interministerial Committee recommended that certain medical and surgical procedures be excluded from those for which substitute consent was valid. Among these was non-therapeutic sterilization, and the Committee gave the following reason for it’s decision:

Non-therapeutic sterilization, in this context, means sterilization performed for contraceptive reasons, where the procedure is not necessary to preserve the physical health of the recipient. Recent court decisions in England and Canada have affirmed that neither parents not the courts can authorize non-therapeutic sterilization of someone unable to provide an informed consent. “Therapeutic,” in the Canadian context, has been restrictively defined as “the preservation of life or the safeguarding of endangered health.” “Clear and unequivocal statutory authority” is necessary to authorize the performance of this procedure in these circumstances.

It was also recommended that non-therapeutic experimentation, transplantation, and psychosurgery be excluded from those procedures for which substitute consent was valid.

-Caroline Lyster

  • Ontario Interminsterial Committee on Medical Consent. (1979). Options on Medical Consent, Part 2: Recommendations and Draft Legislation. Government of Ontario.