Should kids be used in clinical research?
Doctors, others debate the ethics
By ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
For Hunter Fulton, the best part of participating in the advancement of medicine is the $20 gift certificates.
And what's an extra blood test each year and a few survey questions if the 11-year-old with Type 1 diabetes can help the greater good?
"I like to do it," said Hunter of Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood. "I know that it will help them try to find a cure."
But it would be another matter if doctors wanted to test experimental drugs on him, Hunter said. He wouldn't do that -- not for $100 gift certificates. "Maybe $1 million."
That line between routine, barely invasive research and riskier clinical experimentation drives even the nation's top regulators, ethicists and researchers into intense and sometimes contentious debate. About 200 such professionals gathered in Seattle last weekend to grapple with how such studies should be regulated -- and how to deal with huge loopholes in the laws. The Center for Pediatric Bioethics, which is part of Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, sponsored the conference.
