Adolescent Medicine can be one of the most legally and ethically challenging specialties in medicine.  Often, the law presents standards of consent and confidentiality that do not completely align, which can give rise to conflict in treatment.  When minors have the right to confidentiality but not the ability to consent or to withhold information from their parents, providers might struggle with how to engage the patient in a way that safeguard them in the event that they disclose something they prefer to keep confidential.  Ethically, providers must weigh their obligation to do no harm against the rights that parents hold to offer informed consent to interventions to their child’s health.  This can be especially complex when adolescents are receiving care relating to substance use, mental health, pregnancy or birth control, disordered eating, or other challenging adolescent health topics.  This presentation will explore ethical elements relating to the law around adolescent consent, assent, and confidentiality as well as ethical issues in the provision of care for adolescent patients.

This seminar is an intermediate level program.

This program qualifies for 1.0 MCLE credit hour, including up to 1.0 LEPR credit hour.

SC Supreme Commission on CLE Course #: 216744ADO

About the Speaker

Dr. Alexandra Perry is a clinical ethicist with a decade of experience in ethics consultation.  She is the Chief Executive Officer of Ethics Advisors, LLC which provides healthcare ethics services to rural healthcare systems and community hospitals as well as continuing ethics education.  She is also currently a faculty member in Leadership and Ethics with the McDonough Center at Marietta College.  Dr. Perry is on the board of the Bioethics Network of Ohio and is the author or editor of five books including Ethical Leadership: A Primer published by Edward Elgar, which she recently co-edited with Dr. Robert McManus and Dr. Stanley Ward.  Currently, Dr. Perry is working on a book that examines leadership and ethics in end-of-life care in the American hospital.