Social, Legal, and Political Responses to Ethical Issues in the Use of Children as Experimental Subjects

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Abstract
Given the cognitive and physiological differences between adults and children, research on children is essential for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures aimed at childhood problems. But the use of children as experimental subjects raises serious ethical questions, at the center of which is the notion of “proxy consent.” After discussing the economic and social pressures which may impinge upon parental judgment in the experimental setting, the article reviews several divergent opinions on the ethics of child research. The remainder of the essay focuses on various strategies and mechanisms designed to regulate the conduct of human research and assesses those provisions concerning the use of children.

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