research on children

in the 80's and 90's, foster children have been involved in clinical research for AIDS drug trials. now people ask if those children had any protection, advocacy, and their rights respected while being used as research subjects. some people say that thanks to those trials, tons of AIDS patients were saved including many of these children. advocates for the children's rights where not mendated at the time, and IRB protocols and definitions of "minimal risks" were much less clear than today. those children didn't have parents who could protect their children's interests, so it was pretty easy to use them for research. some similar research is also done on prisonners and is also problematic, but not as much as with children, since children might not understand what they are asked to do or what their rights are. then they may give their consent without knowing what will happen to them. there is no age regulations given by the Institutional Review Boards, but the younger the children are, the less they are told about the details of the research project. you only explain procedures to a young child (like @i'm going to poke you with a needle), but if the child is older and with adults, risks and purposes can be explained. if the child says no, i don't want to participate, the researcher can still override the child's will if there is a "prospect benefit" involved in the study (that is, the child's life could be saved, for example). IRB regulations were not changed until 2001 and then only slightly. best interest vs. children's interest vs. money... this story is just coming out right now. i think that i am starting my research at a bad time!!