Sharav Vera Hassner
The Alliance for Human Research Protection.
Am J Bioeth. 2003 Winter;3(1):W-IF 2. doi: 10.1162/152651603322781639.
This paper examines the culture, the dynamics and the financial underpinnings that determine how medical research is being conducted on children in the United States. Children have increasingly become the subject of experiments that offer them no potential direct benefit but expose them to risks of harm and pain. A wide range of such experiments will be examined, including a lethal heartburn drug test, the experimental insertion of a pacemaker, an invasive insulin infusion experiment, and a fenfluramine "violence prediction" experiment. Emphasis, however, is given to psychoactive drug tests because of the inherent ethical and diagnostic problems involved in the absence of any objective, verifiable diagnostic tool. Effort is made to provide readers comprehensive reference sources to evidence-based reports about the serious risks these drugs pose for adults and children so that the reader may judge whether the benefits (if any) outweigh the risks for children.
本文探讨了决定美国如何对儿童进行医学研究的文化、动态因素和经济基础。儿童越来越多地成为实验对象，这些实验对他们没有潜在的直接益处，却使他们面临伤害和痛苦的风险。将审视一系列此类实验，包括一项致命的胃灼热药物测试、起搏器的实验性植入、侵入性胰岛素输注实验以及芬氟拉明“暴力预测”实验。然而，由于在缺乏任何客观、可验证的诊断工具的情况下存在固有的伦理和诊断问题，本文将重点关注精神活性药物测试。努力为读者提供关于这些药物对成人和儿童构成的严重风险的循证报告的全面参考资料，以便读者能够判断这些益处（如果有的话）是否超过对儿童的风险。
