Article #1 Teen Brain Development

Source Citation:
Jay, Robin. "Teen Brain Development and Decision Making." Editorial.
Behavioral Health Central. N.p., 19 Mar. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2010.

While thinking about my topic, the first question I asked myself is where to start? After thinking about that a little bit I decided the best place for me to start researching was the BRAIN. Since the brain is our decision making device and my topic is all about making decisions it seems like a perfect fit.

While searching the internet I stumbled upon an article called Teen Brain Development Decision Making. This article talks about how the teen brain is "still under construction", and how the brain of a teenager is still young, I Relate this to the brain being like a sponge or like clay for that matter. Even the brain is still developing it does have the ability to make rational decisions but external factors have a greater influence on the individual and its decisions than that of a typical adult brain. Dr.Winters writes that a typical teenager can make good or bad decisions but they tend not think about the consequences long enough when faced with important tasks. Another interesting thing I found out was that society places these different ages of majority on certain tasks (voting, drinking, smoking, going to war etc.) even though the brain is still developing. This made me ask myself that if society is in charge of making specific rules about when certain things are acceptable is society always right? Also if the brain isn’t fully developed but certain activities are allowed by society than who should be in charge of making the age of majority? The most common ages of majority are 16, 18, and 21; these are usually considered rights of passages.
Relating this back to my topic of Medical Emancipation in Minors, I believe that the answer to my question, "Should children have the right to medically emancipate themselves" could go both ways. A person could say no they should not be able to medically emancipate themselves because their brain is not developed and they shouldn’t be able to make a big decision like this. But on the other hand if we go back to this age of majority thing in most states a teenager can drive at 16 without a parent in the car. Driving a car not only affects you and your life but it also affects everyone else on the road and their lives. So if we as a society trust our teenagers to have the possibility of endangering other people’s lives shouldn’t they have the ability to make their own medical decisions about THEIR lives?