Research on children: national commission says 'Yes, if ...'.

T he National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research was mandated to establish guidelines to protect vulnerable populations, including children, from exploitation as research subjects. The impetus to include children in the Commission's mandate was partially a response to experiments performed at Willowbrook State Hospital in Staten Island, New York. There some newly admitted mentally retarded children were deliberately exposed to viral hepatitis to study whether the disease could be better controlled in the institution. In its deliberation and debate, the Commission reached a middle ground between a total prohibition of research involving children at one extreme and an unqualified endorsement of research at the other.