ABSTRACT
Objective
to identify and analyse children’s voices in healthcare decision making in the discourse of Brazil’s child protection laws.
Method
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.
Child; Child advocacy; Patient participation; Decision making