parental consent

[oregongirlie]

Do both parents have to consent to circ. a child? If one dissents, can it still be done against that parent's will?

[maxmama]

I don't know. In most hospitals I've worked in, the mother's consent was required for all interventions, because until the birth certificate is filed the mother is the one with known parental rights. If you see what I mean.

[minkajane]

While there have been cases where the father has consented to a circ (with or without the approval of the mother), legally the mother has full responsibility and all legal rights until the birth certificate has been filed. If a woman wanted her child circ'd and the father didn't (or vise versa), the hospital would go by what the mother wanted.

[baybee]

Depends on where you are. Here in British Columbia, two parents have to agree and sign.

Baybee

[Lovinmy2babies+1]

I"m the only one that had to sign for my son...

[Dave2GA]

Generally in the US only one needs to consent. However few drs. will circ in the face of expressed disagreement on the part of one of the parents. A threat to sue a dr. if he circs in opposition to a parent's wishes with a like threat to the hospital usually suffices to reduce the desire for the circ fee to 0 and to save the boy.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by maxmama

I don't know. In most hospitals I've worked in, the mother's consent was required for all interventions, because until the birth certificate is filed the mother is the one with known parental rights. If you see what I mean.

Yeah, as far as I know the above is what I am aware of. In the hospital I work at it is all about the mother's consent for the circ. I have never seen them ask a dad for any consent. But I'm sure if they are married or dad is on the birth certificate he could speak up and try to stop it if his opinion was different than that of the mother, but to really have a say it would probably take some legal intervention. I've never seen or heard of it happening at my hospital but I don't work on that floor all that much (the postpartum floor is where circs are done here) so I'm sure things have hapenned that I don't know about. But in general it is the mother's consent that is given for circs.

However, in the ICU we do take dad's consent for things (surgery, PICC lines,etc) especially if mom is still recovering from the delivery or something. The rules may be a little different though because the stuff we are dealing with is emergency stuff, not cosmetic surgery.

[Getz]

I was the only one who could give consent for my son at the hospital.

[MommytoB]

No idea in 'california' the place where I gave birth to my son I never was given any paperowrk except with signing for permission for 'assistance with delivery like forceps, episotomy, c-section if needed' . There was none of that and my ob/gyn was a hebrew. No one questioned asked or talked of it.
But I Knew they did it because a boy in the next room to mine was on his nursery to get circ that was when a nurse who was doing checks on me & my son mention that.

I mentioned Do not circ my son she wrote on a piece of paper with o slash

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Here the mother is the only one that can sign the concent in the hospital but after they leave the dad can take the child to have it done without her permission all he has to do is sign.