Abstract
A fixed age of competence at 18 or 21 has been made obsolete by court decisions and new biomedical technologies such as safer abortion procedures. Gaylin discusses the concept of "variable" competence in the context of minors and decision making in medical care or clinical trials, where a child's autonomy is dependent on the amount of risk or gain involved, social benefits and costs, and the nature of the decision itself. (KIE abstract)
