Does Radiation Research in Healthy Children Pose Greater than Minimal Risk?

Ethical Review and Children's Research in Ireland

“…It has been argued that the experience of healthy children should be taken as the minimum risk norm and also that sick children's routine experience should not itself be used to determine a specific level of risk for them, but is primarily relevant in the consent process for allowing them a good understanding of the risks involved (Fisher et al, 2007). With regard to medical research on healthy children, the question of what constitutes minimal risk and what departures from minimal risk are acceptable has been discussed with regard to several interventions, such as experiments involving some level of radiation (Freeman, 1994;Specker and Saenger, 1994).…”