San Joaquin County Human Services Agency v. MARCUS W.

Marcus W. (the minor) has sickle cell anemia and was 16 years old when he was ordered by the juvenile court to undergo periodic blood transfusions to prevent him from suffering a third stroke and possibly death. The minor, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, opposed the transfusions as contrary to his religious beliefs.

On appeal, the minor argues the order must be reversed because the application did not “set forth the legal basis for its request for a one-year court order compelling [the minor] to undergo blood transfusions.” In any event, the minor contends the juvenile court erred in not “recognizing] that mature adolescents may possess the competency and the capacity to make their own medical decisions in exercise of their right of bodily self-determination” (known in some jurisdictions as the “mature minor doctrine”) and in depriving the minor of the opportunity to cross-examine a medical witness and to call and examine his own medical witness and his minister.

We conclude the juvenile court lacked jurisdiction to issue the order because the requirements of Welfare and Institutions Code section 369 were not met. (Further section references are to this code unless…