Abstract
The bioethics of research involving children has been, and remains, the subject of considerable debate and sometimes controversy. Codes and guidelines for ethical practice exist at national and international levels, but there remains debate on key issues among bioethicists, researchers, and clinicians. While codes for ethical research, such as the Nuremberg Code, sought to protect children from research and experimentation, there is now recognition of the potential benefits of research with children. The aim of ethics guidelines is now to protect children within research. Yet there remains division on critical issues of informed consent and children’s competence to decide whether or not they wish to participate in research or experimentation. While issues of consent and competence are essential to debates about bioethics, equally important are the ways in which methodology and method intersect with bioethics.
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Further Readings
Graham, A., Powell, M., Taylor, N., Anderson, D. & Fitzgerald, R. (2013). Ethical research involving children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. Available at http://childethics.com/. Viewed 8 May 2015.
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Bessell, S. (2015). Children: Research. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_75-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_75-1
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