Child’s assent in research: Age threshold or personalisation?

BMC Medical Ethics

Jan Piasecki¹  Vilius Dranseika²  Marcin Waligora¹ 

[1] Department of Philosophy and Bioethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Michalowskiego 12, Krakow 31-126, Poland;Department of Logic and History of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

关键词: Vulnerable subjects;    Assent;    Paediatrics;    Research;    Children;   

Others  :  799508
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6939-15-44

 received in 2014-03-03, accepted in 2014-06-10,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Assent is an important ethical and legal requirement of paediatric research. Unfortunately, there are significant differences between the guidelines on the details of assent.

Discussion

What often remains unclear is the scope of the assent, the procedure for acquiring it, and the way in which children’s capacity to assent is determined. There is a general growing tendency that suggests that the process of assent should be personalised, that is, tailored to a particular child. This article supports the idea of personalisation. However, we also propose placing limits on personalisation by introducing a suggested requirement of assent starting at a school-age threshold. In some situations RECs/IRBs and researchers could reduce the suggested threshold.

Summary

A recommended age threshold is likely to serve the interests of children better than ambiguous and flexible criteria for personalised age determination.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Waligora et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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