but it still needs a court order in most countries
Because doctors don’t have legal authority. They need to get it from the State. Children are a ward of the State ( under some legal circumstances ) not of a hospital.
But there is a legal difference between a parent imposing their religion on their child depriving a child of medical treatment and a parent’s right to decide the best medical treatment for their child, acting on the child’s best interest and not based on religion.
But the State has authority over children regardless and doctors can go to the Courts if they have medical reasons the parent is making a wacky decision, or when doctors believe the child needs a treatment and a parent is not cooperating,
But some religious groups have clout and the authorities look the other way. —Until a problem arises, for example, some orthodox jews don’t vaccinate their children and since they send their children to Jewish owned schools run by orthodox jews, the kids don’t get vaccinated tor measles, etc. Until there is a measles epidemic and other infections, resulting in the municipality sending out health inspectors to enforce health codes in religious schools, even shutting down non complying religious schools who cannot provide vaccination records.— Until the coast is clear. When everything goes back to normal and the publicity dies out and also the infection rate, the government turns a blind eye influenced by clout; I’m sure of it.
But any time a hospital believes that a child needs medical treatment ( and the money iain’t coming out of their personal pocket) and parents don’t cooperate, they can easily get a Court Order and treat the child. They cannot do that with an adult although in the past I’ve seen Courts go against a proxy and order treatment in-spite of a proxy based on the wishes of a spouse or close family member. Depends on the judge and the case but now-days the proxy will normally stand.
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