Listen to a grieving mother

DOCTORS often face making very difficult decisions.

Deciding the best course of treatment for patients can confront them with unenviable choices and the public must have sympathy for this.

There will be many parents who will say that they should be involved in the decisionmaking process when their 16-year-old son or daughter is involved.

Britney Mazzoncini was given a prescription for 84 very powerful drugs.

She had gone to her GP suffering depression, so was clearly in a troubled state of mind.

Her mother didn’t know she had been given the drugs.

This raises serious questions about the law.

If a vulnerable teenager has heavy-duty drugs in her possession – drugs that could kill if taken in large quantities – doesn’t a parent have the right to know about that?

Doesn’t a parent have the right to ask questions?

There will always be debate over when a young person becomes responsible for themselves. There will be debates over privacy.

And these factors deserve careful scrutiny.

But the opinions of a mother, who believes she could have saved her daughter’s life if she’d had more information, should be listened to and considered.

A life could be at stake.