Oregon Minor Medical Consent at Age 15: What ORS 109.640 Means

The Rule

Under ORS 109.640, any person aged 15 or older in Oregon can independently consent to hospital care, medical or surgical diagnosis, dental care, and optometric care — no parent, guardian, or caregiver signature required. This also covers immunizations and routine vaccinations.

For COVID-19 vaccines, OAR 333-003-5000 specifically prohibits providers and vaccine sites from requiring parental or guardian consent from 15- to 17-year-olds exercising this right.

What It Covers

ORS 109.640 is broad. At age 15, a minor in Oregon can authorize:

• Routine and urgent medical exams and treatment
• Surgical diagnosis and non-emergency procedures
• Dental cleanings, x-rays, fillings, and extractions
• Optometric exams (except the initial fitting of contact lenses)
• Immunizations and vaccinations

The only explicit exception: the statute does not extend to first-time contact lens prescriptions.

How This Interacts with Caregiver Documents

If you hold a Relative Caregiver Affidavit or Delegation of Parental Powers for a teenager, the teen's ORS 109.640 rights and your consent authority run in parallel once the child turns 15. Either one is legally sufficient for routine care.

In practice, most clinics will accept whichever consent is presented first. The teen can make their own appointment and authorize their own treatment. You can also continue consenting on their behalf using your caregiver documentation. Neither overrides the other for routine care.

Notification Rules

Providers may inform a parent or guardian about treatment provided to a minor under ORS 109.640 — this is permitted under ORS 109.650 — but they are not legally required to do so. The notification decision rests with the provider, and many will follow the teen's expressed preference.

This is different from the mental health consent rule (ORS 109.675 for age 14+), where providers must involve parents by end of treatment unless specific exceptions apply. General medical consent at 15 has no mandatory involvement requirement.

Oregon's Three Age Thresholds

Oregon layers minor consent rights by age and service type:

For kinship caregivers, this layered system means your affidavit or delegation becomes less critical as the child gets older — by 15, the teen can handle most of their own healthcare decisions.

What This Means for Your Family

Knowing ORS 109.640 helps in two ways. If you are caring for a teenager nearing 15, you can plan for the shift — the teen gains independence over their own medical decisions, which is healthy. And if a provider refuses your caregiver paperwork for a 15-year-old, the teen can consent directly, bypassing the dispute entirely.

The Oregon School and Medical Consent Guide includes a complete worksheet mapping each age threshold to the specific services covered, so you always know exactly where caregiver authority ends and teen self-consent begins.

See more Oregon guides →