But since vaccination is considered a medical procedure, you cannot give a vaccine without informed consent. In this case it’s the parent’s consent because the child is incapable of giving informed consent. There is plenty of case law stating that medical practitioners cannot perform medical procedures if the patient has withdrawn consent despite the best of intentions and practices. It’s ultimately not up to the healthcare provider except in very specific cases, and vaccination is not one of those.

Parental consent is usually used as a substitute where a child is too young to give consent for a procedure. In Australia and the UK once a child is able to understand the procedure and associated risks they are considered “Gillick competent” and their consent outweighs the parent’s, but until then the parent is the one who gives consent on the child’s behalf. Parental consent is also used as a substitute when the child is incapacitated by injury or illness such that they are incapable of giving informed consent. Health practitioners and first aiders can also assume consent in life-threatening situations where the patient is incapable of giving consent (e.g. giving CPR to someone in cardiac arrest).