Emancipated minor
Background
- Definition: legal mechanism by which a minor is freed from control by his or her parents or guardians, and the parents or guardians are freed from any and all responsibility toward the child
- Economic self-sufficiency
- Marriage
- In the US military
- Pregnant
- Already parents
- Treated as temporarily emancipated when regarding:
- Drug rehabilitation
- Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD)
Other
- Physical or mental disability children may never attain emancipation, even after age of majority (typically 18)
- Incapable of caring for themselves
- This may or may not affect legal matters related to such things as insurance benefits, SSI, SSDI, wills, tax obligations to them and their caretakers, medical decisions, religious choices, residential and other accommodations, etc. due to their non-emancipated status.
- Age of Consent
- Age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts
- Not the same of medical consent