A Decent Proposal: Ethical Review of Clinical Research Donald Evans and Martyn Evans Centre for Philosophy and Health Care University of Wales Swansea, UK The investigation and development of modern medicines and medical technology can create numerous ethical dilemmas both for clinical researchers and research ethics committees. A Decent Proposal: Ethical Review of Clinical Research seeks to facilitate and encourage good clinical research by exploring the concerns, responsibilities, general issues and particular pitfalls associated with ethical aspects of research. It provides (...) practical guidelines for researchers on how to improve the quality of research design, while for those appointed to scrutinise research proposals it offers advice on how to apply consistent, careful and critical reasoning to the process of assessing ethical standards. As such, it will provide invaluable assistance to clinical researchers and ethics committees alike in understanding the moral challenges posed by modern health care. (shrink)

Should children be excluded from medical research? Some child rights activists argue that no child should ever be used for research, while many physicians claim that health care for children will not improve without such experimentation. This informative study examines the legal and ethical basis for carrying out research on children, discussing such factors as the distinction between therapeutic and nontherapeutic research, the nature of risk in medical research, and the degree to which children can make responsible decisions regarding research (...) on themselves. A thoughtful, lucid consideration of an important issue in medical ethics, this book will be of interest to all doctors working in medical research, and to pediatricians, moral philosophers, family lawyers, child welfare proponents, and interested lay people. (shrink)

The question of whether or not children may be used as subjects in non-therapeutic research projects has generated a great deal of debate and received answers varying from 'no, never' to 'yes, if societal interests are served'. It has been claimed that a Kantian, deontological ethics would necessarily rule out such research, since valid consent would be impossible. The present paper gives a deontological argument for allowing children to be subjects in certain types of research.