Resolved: Adolescents ought to have the right to make autonomous medical choices.

I will state my case, then go to my opponent's. I negate. I value morality as per the evaluative term "ought" in the resolution, which is defined as "used to express duty or moral obligation". By Merriam-Webster. The standard is maximizing societal welfare. Experience is the source of epistemic knowledge as it is how we empirically ground our existence. We cannot derive truth from reason as conceptions of reason differ from person to person and reason is socially constructed and thus dynamic. Sentience is the only non-arbitrary source of normativity. Pain is universally bad and pleasure is universally good." Nagel 86 Sensory pleasure is good and pain bad, no matter who"s they are. Everyone takes the avoidance of pain and promotion of pleasure subjective reason for action. Without positive reason to think there is nothing good or bad about having an experience we can't regard the common impression to the contrary as a collective illusion. Equality must be the foundation of any system. Util is the only ethical framework that is consistent with the equality of individuals by impartially maximizing good consequences. Reject ethics that admit arbitrariness as they are not coherent guides to action." Util is the most educational because it"s how states make decisions. Education is the only portable impact from debate so prefer my standard because it"s more educational. In order for the aff to win, they have to prove why adolescents are capable of medical autonomy. The only way to do this is by defending the fact that adolescents have the same nature and decision-making process as adults. In order for the neg to win, I must prove at least one reason why adolescents aren"t capable of autonomy. Contention 1: Social Influence Adolescents have sensation seeking which leads to unhealthy decisions. Wilhelms et.al. 13 writes Sensation seeking has been extensively studied and appears to be curvilinearly related to age rising to a peak in adolescence, followed by a decline. Adolescents perceive rewards associated with taking risks to be particularly great, which can result in unhealthy decisions. Adults and Adolescents process information differently where adolescents can"t process the emotional critical meaning. Wilhelms et.al. 13 writes One group of subjects chooses between 400 dying versus a two-thirds probability that all 600 die. People change their answers to mostly risk seeking, based on whether the options are described in terms of lives saved or lives lost, even with mathematically identical options. This example also illustrates the role that emotion plays in advanced cognition, as previously explored. The ability to see this is particularly relevant to mature minors' medical decisions as adolescents do not process this gist in the same way that adults do. Contention 2: Flawed Priorities Instant gratification is prioritized over delayed reward within" adolescent minds. Wilhelms et.al. 13 writes Adolescents have not completed the process of neurobiological changes associated with self-control. Tendency to weigh immediate rewards more highly than delayed reward is referred to as temporal discounting and is a stable characteristic and predictor in adult decision-making. In adolescent development social consequences are prioritized over health. Wilhelms et.al. 13 writes Changes occur in the networks relied on for the encoding of social and emotional information. The potential consequence of losing one"s hair due to chemotherapy bring dramatic social consequences for an adolescent. Contention 3: Immaturity The cognitive control of adolescents is highly unstable due to immaturity. Wilhelms et.al. 13 writes Adolescents have similar basic cognitive capacities. They do not use this reasoning as a result of immature cognitive control systems. The adolescent decision making process is not mature and does not rely heavily on intuit. Wilhelms et.al. 13 writes Adolescents are not just more emotional and impulsive than adults; their understanding is not mature. Adult decisions rely on intuitive representations. Adolescent processing of risky decision-making resembles the example of adolescent chemotherapy patient who decided to consume alcohol. Mature understanding of the situation would be a rejection of the standard model of trading off. On to my opponent's case. Your framework begs the question "why is autonomy intrinsically valuable?" This assumption is never justified in the 1AC. Nothing is intrinsically valuable since things are only valuable if they achieve some other end. Autonomy achieves some other end and is therefore valuable but that"s only after the fact that means that since death precludes autonomy, you should evaluate death impacts first. The only reason autonomy would be valuable is because it allows us to control our decisions, however this assumption appeals to the idea that consequences matter which justifies utilitarianism. Instead of merely protecting autonomy, we should maximize overall autonomy. Outweighs: 1] My arguments are intuitively true, for example we wouldn"t let genocide occur even if we had to violate someone"s autonomy because that makes no sense. 2] Autonomy violations are inevitable " every state action will obviously violate some people"s autonomy so we should devolve to utilitarianism instead of using a framework that leads to policy inaction. Most parents actually listen to their kids and don"t abuse them. Coleman 12 This does not mean there is no role for adolescents" voices in medical decision-making. It is likely that these voices and norms largely influence and dictate most parents" best interests determinations. The consent form signed by a parent is mostly a formalism. Medical decisions cost money but adolescents don"t have any. De facto, adolescents will require parental consent in order to pay for any medical decision. A core tenet of the aff is that parents disagree with adolescents on their medical choices" unfortunately, they don"t resolve that. McGuire 10 Many treatments are expensive. The likelihood that a minor is able to sustain such fees is remote; hence, there is an a priori assumption of parental approval and consent. The adolescent as well as the adult are on equal footing in this matter. Thus, I negate.