Review : Involving the non-consenting child in non-therapeutic research

Abstract

■ Both the legality and ethics of involving non-consenting children in non-therapeutic research are issues of substance ■ Children's involvement in non-therapeutic research may serve the utilitarian good, but what of the individual child's rights to protection and not to be put at risk? ■ Non-therapeutic research is probably legal and may be ethical if children are able to provide and are asked to give their own informed consent ■ There is a need to build a more complete picture of the development in children's decision-making competence over time as it relates to their involvement in non- therapeutic research