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To the Editor.—We would like to raise several points regarding your marginal comment published in the April issue of the Journal (127:471, 1974).
In these comments it is stated that there are "rumors of efforts to ban all clinical investigation on minors." Although various types of regulation and legislation on research on human subjects have already been proposed, and more will certainly be forthcoming, none of these efforts propose to ban all research on children. Studies where the child himself may benefit directly from experimental treatment would rarely be interdicted. It is the "nontherapeutic" research that is being questioned in relation to those individuals who either cannot be appropriately informed or cannot freely consent or both. It is to this type of research as it applies to such individuals that we wish to respond.
It is unfortunate that many researchers who are striving to preserve the status quo of