KIE: The author reviews the legal trend in the United States during the last 25 years toward allowing adolescents greater freedom to make decisions regarding their health care. She discusses courts' use of the "mature minor" rule; state statutes permitting treatment of venereal disease and drug and alcohol abuse without parental knowledge; constitutional rights of adolescents to contraception at federally funded facilities; state requirements for parental or judicial involvement in adolescents' abortion decisions; and treatment refusal of elective as opposed to lifesaving treatment. Holder suggests that physicians consult their state or county medical societies for the specific laws that apply where they practice.