McGuinness for VT Addison-4 House
Families
This issue relates directly to my work as Vermont Family Alliance Policy Analyst.
If elected, I would make efforts to repeal legislation that usurps the authority of parents and legal guardians. Legislators are incrementally introducing and passing legislation that allows minors to make adult decisions despite neuroscience on adolescent brain development. Library confidentiality records for ages 12+ can stifle rather than encourage discussions between parents and their children. Consent to health care and medical procedures can have life-altering consequences, and this legislation often includes a disaffirmance clause that makes the minor responsible for their choice: there is no legal recourse for the minor or the parents if the minor experiences negative side effects or complications from the treatments to which they are legally allowed to consent. Such legislation has the effect of lowering the age of majority without actually introducing a bill to lower the age of majority under 1 V.S.A. § 173 from 18 to 12. This minor “confidentiality” has the potential to put adolescents in the position of delayed receipt of emergency medical care if the minor experiencing a complication is afraid to inform their parents that they received a procedure or treatment without their parents’ knowledge.