AIDS Drugs tested on foster children...?

i just read this article and there were differing views being reported regarding the necessity of assigning "monitors" to oversee the best-interests of the foster children included in this drug study. the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence (to do good), and malfeasance (to do harm), and justice may be used to defend either position. some questions i have are:

- what potential 'good' could come from foster children participating in this research?
-what potential 'harms' could come from foster children participating in this research?
-should children (in general) and foster children be used as subjects in research?

Applying these principles to each position, do you believe that these children's best interests were protected?

You have to do separate drug trials for children, because you cannot reliably infer how well a drug will work on children solely from how well it has worked in adults. Prior studies in adults can give you some idea, but children sometimes react differently to medical treatments, and so if you are making clinical decisions about treating a sick child you need a separate body of evidence specifically about kids.

Drug trials in children occur AFTER the drug has been proven safe and effective in adults. They provide essential information additional to, not instead of, adult trials.

The ethical issue, though, is that informed consent has to be delegated to a competent adult, usually the child's natural parent. It gets more complicated with foster kids, because legal guardianship may be in flux, or in dispute between the natural parent(s) and the state.

A decision to conduct or participate in a drug trial is a risk-benefit issue.

The particular issue with AIDS drug trials is that participants often use these to access promising treatments when all established treatments have failed. In the case of the controversial study in New York, the kids had failed conventional treatment, and the trial was of treatments already shown to be useful in adults, but yet to be approved for kids. When you have a kid with a serious condition like AIDS and currently approved paediatric treatments aren't working but proven adult treatments might, I think most reasonable parents would seriously consider that option if it were available.

The problem with foster kids is establishing who can legitimately assess the risk-benefit equation in the child's best interests, and grant or refuse consent.

The simple answer might be to leave foster kids out of trials altogether, but in the case of AIDS drugs trials are often the only way of accessing needed treatment. You then have a justice and equity issue if foster kids cannot get access to treatments that other kids can.

In my opinion having been a foster child the childs best interests have never been nor will ever be the best interest to anyone. They are moved home to home and school to school with no stability they are abused at the hands of so called foster parents and siblings and no they should not be used for research but should be tested at medical check ups two differant things.

Children in general should not be used as subjects in research. If a person is not old enough to give proper consent (by law) then they should not be allowed or forced to participate in the research or study. Period.