Nontherapeutic research with children: the Ramsey versus McCormick debate

Abstract

The ethical debates about use of children as research subjects are stimulated by reports of actual events. These reports often distort the essential ethical arguments about how and when use of children can be justified. The essential arguments were clearly formulated in an historic debate between two ethicists, Paul Ramsey and Richard McCormick. Their debate laid the foundations for the recommendations of the National Commission for Protection of Human Subjects that have become the current federal regulations governing research with children.