So I'm working on something new, but I'm having trouble with a lot of details and Google is surprisingly unhelpful (I thought this would be the sort of thing that's easy to search). So I've got an underage character who needs to get control of their own medical decisions pretty quickly. I'm thinking of having them try for medical emancipation, like in the book My Sister's Keeper - is that a real thing, or do you have to ask for full emancipation (housing, financial, etc.) along with the medical consent part? What would the general process of getting this look like? I know it wouldn't be that fast, so would there be some sort of temporary/emergency court order while the legal process goes on? Would a minor who filed for medical emancipation potentially be placed in foster care during the process? I do know a bit about the role of a guardian ad litem, and I assume there'd be one appointed somewhere in this, but would the minor have to get the money to pay their own lawyer before that happened? Could they start the process without a lawyer? How would a teenager even go about starting this process/finding a lawyer to file in court for emancipation? This is complicated in my story by the fact that my character is probably going to be stuck in the hospital at the time, and can't speak on a phone. Hospitals have social workers, right? Is this the kind of thing they would be able to assist with? Am I going to need to invent an outside friend my character can send a text message to or something, to get legal assistance for them? I know this all looks different in every state - let's say Pennsylvania for now, but I could easily adjust that if it looks more workable somewhere else.
Emancipation is a not so simple legal petition granting adult status to a minor, though I doubt it get one around legal drinking age- under 21 is still under 21. The best way to go about this, I think, would be to do it. Put yourself in the place of a minor and do the legwork to start, and go through the process. There may be resources at the hospital, but their primary line of work is health care. They don’t usually cheer when lawyers show up. They might be able to hand you off to social services, who then might be able to line up a juvenile advocate. Either way, if you really want to know what a hospital might do, ask a hospital. If you want to know what the courts might do, ask the courts. https://www.court.co.lancaster.pa.us/158/Emancipation-of-Minors#:~:text=Emancipation is the legal process by which a,on the specific facts in a given situation.
I would imagine, especially if it's a high-profile case or seen as a violation of the child's basic rights, a lawyer would be glad to take it on as a pro bono case (for free). But then, I don't claim to know anything about lawyers or the law.
