1. According to current Dutch legal conceptions, minors are subject to constitutional rights. Parental authority is aimed at the protection of a child's interests. This parental authority cannot affect constitutional rights. Another important point is, that there is a certain interaction between parental authority and a minor's own. The older the minor grows and the more aware he becomes, the less important parental authority will be.
2. Under the Medical Contract Bill( WGBO) the patient's consent is needed for each separate action by a medical professional. The WGBO requires for a contract for medical treatment the consent of a minor under sixteen years of age as well as that of his legal representative. If a parent or guardian refuses to consent to treatment, the minor would officially have to wait until he becomes sixteen. When the minor in question is able to reasonably appreciate his own interests and when treatment is obviously necessary, the medical practitioner is allowed to treat him without his legal representative's consent.
3. When the legal representative refuses to consent to a contract for medical treatment, a measure of the Child Proection Board can be implemented in order to overcome the deadlock. The WGBO further states that a patient's consent, respectively a legal representative's consent, may be considered given by implication when the operation is not a major one. Under the age of twelve, the medical practitioner's liabilities are met towards the parents or the guardian under the WGBO. The same applies to minors of twelve years and over, when they are not capable of reasonable appreciation of their own interests. As regards information, the minor under the age of twelve could also be informed, as well as his parents, on the nature of his treatment in terms adapted to his age.
4. Under the WGBO a minor is held liable for the obligations arising from his entering into contract for medical treatment, without prejudice to the parental obligation to provide for the cost of his living and education. This regulation implies that the minor himself has to comply with the contract for medical treatment entered into and will have to settle the medical practitioner's bill. His parents remain under the obligation to settle the cost ensuing from the contract for medical treatment, insomuch as they can be regarded as cost of living and eduction.
5. A minor of twelve years or over has the right to object to the presence of the legal representative at the time of the medical treatment.

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