Question

Children as Research Subjects Ethical doctrines of informed consent were drawn up with adults in mind. However, research with children is vitally important to their health and well-being. How should one treat the issue of consent with children? Should others—parents or surrogate decision makers—give consent for children who lack cognitive powers to do so? One prominent commentator contended that children should be excluded from nontherapeutic research because they cannot consent, and it is wrong to use them as means to an end no matter how noble the goals may be. In the 1970s, theologian Paul Ramsey of Yale University held that children should never be used in nontherapeutic research if that research involved a physical aspect. He based this interdiction on the importance of respect for persons. People should not be used in research that involved them physically without their consent. In addition, involuntary research amounts to wrongful touching, battery in effect. He stated that children are incapable of consent, and that makes them ineligible as research subjects. He believed proxy consent, from parents, for example, could be given when research held out a possible therapeutic benefit for the child in question. But proxy consent should not be admissible for nontherapeutic research, be- cause in that case the child would be used as a means to an end, and not respected as the primary beneficiary of an intervention. Ramsey recognized that a great deal of research could go undone if this approach was taken, but he thought it better to err on the side of avoiding harm to children, rather than exposing children to risk. He did not rule out all nontherapeutic research with children, only that involving physical aspects. It would not be wrong, therefore, to conduct observational or educational studies. Nevertheless, because children can- not consent in a way that makes informed consent meaningful, they should not be used as subjects in nontherapeutic research, even if their parents agree.

QUESTION: How and to what extent might research progress be slowed if children were not used in the ways Ramsey suggested?

Answer 1

One of the most important things about using children in the research according to Paul Ramsey is that it might cause physical harm to the children and because of the fact that they may not be able to give consent to the research themselves. This would mean that many helpful researches would come to a standstill that could help many children across the world. However, therapeutic researches that would help the children who are involved in the research can be conducted. He also suggests that observational and educational researches could be conducted without physically involving the children. If children are not allowed to be used in the research, it would prevent the world from understanding the children better and delay the educators, government and researchers in designing better programs for the children.

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