Experimentation with Children: The “Pawns” of Medical Technology

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Abstract
Without the use of human subjects in pediatric research, medical science would not have made many of its advances in the diagnosis and treatment of children's diseases. However, scientifically valid experimental trials require healthy subjects as controls and the use of healthy children raises many complex moral and legal questions. The need to experiment on normal, healthy children has blocked full recognition of their legal rights. Currently, as in the past, parents are allowed to volunteer their children as research subjects by means of “proxy consent.” This doctrine is, however, the only legal justification offered for submitting children to the often potentially damaging procedures they may be subject to as unknowing and perhaps unwilling subjects. While such third party consent appears to satisfy everyone's conscience, its use in non-therapeutic experimentation is inconsistent with established legal principles.

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