Abstract

CARSI BOCANEGRA, Eduardo Emilio. Obtaining informed consent from children to participate in a research study: our professional obligation. Bol. Med. Hosp. Infant. Mex. [online]. 2010, vol.67, n.4, pp.306-314. ISSN 1665-1146.

For a long time, many children have been included in biomedical investigations without first being mindful of their rights as human beings and depending only on the ethics of the investigator, although many were experimental studies. Over time and from the second half of the 20th century, many considerations have been made to promote legal protection for the child, attempting to conduct investigational studies with the maximum benefits and minimum risks to the minor. In Mexico, investigators and ethics committees of hospitals require informed consent to participate in a research study. However, we do not know how many investigators actually request assent for participation from minors. This article focuses on the need to ask mentally capable minors to assent to participate in an investigational study.

Keywords : minor; assent; research study.