Parental consent

“ The usual justification for a parental consent or notification provision is that it supports the authority of a parent who is presumed to act in the minor's best interest and thereby assures that the minor's decision to terminate her pregnancy is knowing, intelligent, and deliberate. To the extent that such an interest is legitimate, it would be fully served by a requirement that the minor notify one parent who can then seek the counsel of his or her mate or any other party, when such advice and support is deemed necessary to help the child make a difficult decision. ”

“ Unlike parental consent laws, a law requiring parental notice does not give any third party the legal right to make the minor's decision for her, or to prevent her from obtaining an abortion should she choose to have one performed. ”

“ Whatever choice a pregnant young woman makes--to marry, to abort, to bear her child out of wedlock--the consequences of her decision may have a profound impact on her entire future life. A legislative determination that such a choice will be made more wisely in most cases if the advice and moral support of a parent play a part in the decisionmaking process is surely not irrational. Moreover, it is perfectly clear that the parental-consent requirement will necessarily involve a parent in the decisional process. ”

“ In my opinion, however, the parental-consent requirement is consistent with the holding in Roe. The State's interest in the welfare of its young citizens justifies a variety of protective measures. Because he may not foresee the consequences of his decision, a minor may not make an enforceable bargain. He may not lawfully work or travel where he pleases, or even attend exhibitions of constitutionally protected adult motion pictures. Persons below a certain age may not marry without parental consent. Indeed, such consent is essential even when the young woman is already pregnant. ”

“ If there is no parental-consent requirement, many minors will submit to the abortion procedure without ever informing their parents. An assumption that the parental reaction will be hostile, disparaging, or violent no doubt persuades many children simply to bypass parental counsel which would in fact be loving, supportive, and, indeed, for some indispensable. ”

“ Infancy, Manumission, Marriage.—At common law a person is an infant until he is twenty-one years of age. Statutes have modified that rule so that girls in some States, and both girls and boys in others, may contract marriage at an earlier age without the parental consent. Generally, an infant can not contract marriage without the consent of the living parent or guardian unless the child has been manumitted. ”

“ Such is the opinion of Voet,^ which Van der Keessel accepts.* But only very pecuUar circumstances would justify overriding the parental authority.* An insane parent, so far as concerns consent, is treated as non-existent, and the same consent, if any, is required and sufficient as would be sufficient if he or she were already dead.* A minor who has married with consent, and who becomes widowed before reaching the usual limit of full age, may remarry without consent. ”

“ In the case of minors, the written consent of parents or legal guardian or, in their absence, persons exercising parental authority or next-of-kin shall be required only in elective surgical procedures and in no case shall consent be required in emergency or serious cases as defined in Republic Act No. ”

“ If neither any parent nor a legal guardian is available to the physician within a reasonable time and in a reasonable manner, consent of any adult person standing in loco parentis shall be sufficient. ”

“ The law says that no person shall marry who is under age, without the consent of his or her parents; and the law has very justly drawn this line. The law, therefore, very properly contemplates that no parent shall have the absolute controul over the person of a child in this matter after that child has come of age. ”

“ It is a grave responsibility to take the parent's place even for a time and with their consent. We ought to feel it an unnatural position, and to endeavour to remedy the evil of it as far as possible by continually referring the child back to the wishes and authority of its father or mother. ”

“ Certain authorities insist that the consent of parents must always be obtained before the daughter is asked to give herself in marriage. While there is nothing improper or wrong in such a course, still, in this country, with our social customs, it is deemed best in most cases not to be too strict in this regard. ”

“ The considerations on account of which the granting of parental authority to the married mother is regarded as permissible, have no bearing upon the case of the unmarried mother. The interest of the illegitimate child, and, indirectly, the interest of society at large, urgently demand the securest possible guarantees that the child will be properly brought up. ”

“ However we must submit to them if we would not bring evil consequences on ourselves. It is true that the mother has given the child over into our keeping, but the father's consent is wanting, and so we cannot receive him. ”

“ The [72] obligation to provide for the upbringing of their children is legally imposed on parents, if only for the reason that the liabilities thus incurred through the sexual act withhold many persons from needless and excessive sexual indulgence—and such conditional abstinence is advantageous, not merely to the individual, but also to the community. The upbringing of children rests upon the legal basis of parental authority. The suitable upbringing of the offspring is best ensured when the legal relationships between the sexes are properly regulated. ”

“ We have found nothing in the older sources, nor in the older cases, addressing specifically the power of the natural father to assert parental rights over a child born into a woman's existing marriage with another man. ”

“ In general, male infants and unmarried females under eighteen years, may, of their own free will, bind themselves, in writing, to serve as apprentices and servants, in any trade or employment; males until the age of twenty-one, and females until the age of eighteen years, or for a shorter time. But the minor must have the consent of the father; or if the father is dead, or disqualified by law, or neglects to provide for his family, consent must be had of the mother ”

“ But precisely because marriage puts an end to education, and because parents alone have a right to decide when the education is finished, the parents must also have the right to refuse their consent to the marriage of their children for a time, or to postpone their marriage. ”

“ At a minimum, our prior cases recognizing that children are, generally speaking, constitutionally protected actors require that this Court reject any suggestion that when it comes to parental rights, children are so much chattel. ”

“ It consists in a general supervision of the maintenance and education of their children and in the administration of their property. It gives the parents the right of demanding from their children due reverence and obedience to their orders, and also in case of improper behaviour to inflict such moderate chastisement as may tend to improvement. Parents may not be sued by their children without leave of the Court, termed venia agendi. [16] No marriage can be contracted by children without the consent of their parents. ”

“ God knoweth, but ye know not.
Mothers, when divorced, shall give suck to their children two full years,91 if the father desire that the suckling be completed; and such maintenance and clothing as is fair for them, shall devolve on the father. No person shall be charged beyond his means. A mother shall not be pressed unfairly for her child, nor a father for his child: And the same with the father's heir. But if they choose to wean the child by consent and by bargain, it shall be no fault in them. ”

“ It will be seen from this that the father alone has the absolute legal right to deal with his child or children, to the extent of separating them, at his own sole pleasure, from their mother, and of giving them into the care and custody of any person whom he may think fit. ”

“ Maternal Authority.—In the matter of love for the offspring the mother, for physiological reasons (pregnancy, parturition, and lactation) , stands on a higher plane than the father. The intensity of her love for her children explains the fact that the mother neither needs nor exercises much parental authority. Moreover, inasmuch as hitherto the mother has always been in a state of greater or less subjection to the father, parental authority has at all times chiefly taken the form of paternal authority. ”

“ A child shall continue to enjoy its inherent rights in and to its parents, and each parent shall continue to enjoy its inherent parental rights in and to its child, and, as provided by law, each parent shall continue to exercise its parental responsibilities and obligations to its child, subsequent to dissolution of marriage or separation, and at all times in the case of a child born out of wedlock, subject to the provisions of this Act. ”

“ It is a significant fact that while the law holds the child of fourteen capable of defending her honour, it does not allow any girl who may possess property to manage or dispose of it in any way till she is 21 years old, and anyone marrying her without the consent of her legal guardians, even though she may be willing herself, is liable to severe punishment. ”

“ If any offender whose conduct against a child has proved him to be incapable of exercising with propriety parental authority, the powers of a guardian, the powers of a foster-parent, the duties of a teacher, it is essential to deprive him of these powers without delay; and this should be done, not only in the interests of the particular child, but in the interests of all children. ”

“ The only question is, Who is to prefer the complaint, since the unmarried daughter stands under the authority of her parents, who are her legal guardians, and who will not be likely to prefer complaint against themselves? The solution of this difficulty we shall find when we come to see that the daughter escapes that parental authority the moment she marries. Hence, the law can very properly provide that a daughter shall become independent the moment her parents propose marriage to her, and shall, therefore, be full master of her own rights in such case. ”

“ In cases when the court has deprived the parents of their parental rights, the court shall permit the parents to visit their children provided that such visits shall not have a harmful and prejudicial effect upon the children. ”

“ The First Book of Discipline makes it peremptory that no persons should be married without the consent of the parents, unless it should appear that there was no reasonable ground for the refusal of their consent. ”

“ Owing to their possession of parental authority, it is the duty and the right of the parents to exercise the guardianship over their children in every capacity; as the legal representatives of those of their children who are still under age, the parents are competent to act on behalf of and in the name of their children. ”

“ See how necessary it is that children should take their parents' consent along with them in their marriage; and how unjust they are to their parents, as well as undutiful, if they marry without it; for they rob them of their right to them, and interest in them, and alienate it to another, fraudulently and unnaturally. ”

“ With the written consent of one parent or person in loco parentis of the woman if the woman is unmarried and under the age of eighteen years, unless the abortion is certified by a licensed physician as necessary in order to preserve the life of the mother. ”

“ Rights of children in non-intact families. The general assembly hereby declares that children whose parents are dissolving or have dissolved their marriage or are separated, and children born out of wedlock, have certain inalienable rights in the determination of their continued relationship with each parent, including the right to have such determinations based upon the inherent right of the child to its inherent relationship with, and the care, companionship, control and nurture of the child by, each parent. ”

“ When a father brings up his child with a proper affection, affection from the offspring ought to be expected; but in no case has the parent a right to implicit obedience, [160] unless he has so acted, and the law he wishes to make absolute is such as will not affect the welfare of the child. ”

“ But a mother can apply to the court for an order that she may have the exclusive care of her children while they are respectively under seven years of age; and after that age, for leave of access to them at reasonable times, in cases where husband and wife do not live together. In case of the divorce of the parents, the court will give directions as to the custody of the children of the marriage, taking into consideration the offence against morality of the guilty parent, but also what is best for the children’s education and upbringing and prospects in life. ”

“ Turning to the question whether harm to the child must be the controlling standard in every visitation proceeding, there is a beginning point that commands general, perhaps unanimous, agreement in our separate opinions: As our case law has developed, the custodial parent has a constitutional right to determine, without undue interference by the state, how best to raise, nurture, and educate the child. ”

“ If there are parents, or a parent, they or she have the right of parentage; if an adopted mother, the right of adoption. [F]
We know that the law is framed to protect the good, and the rights of parentage cannot be too carefully guarded; but to one who has not a legal mind, but only sees a little girl in danger of her life, and has to stand with hands tied by a law intended to deal with totally different matters, it seems strange that things should be so. ”