ABSTRACT
Children are generally considered a special population of research participants, in large because it is assumed that children cannot fully comprehend the nature and purposes of a research project and their rights to privacy and confidentiality, and therefore produce an informed decision as to whether they want to take part in research.1 One is urged to respect children’s rights and competencies in research studies but in practice this is optional – children cannot be asked to give consent (because of their apparent limited competencies) but researchers may seek assent to participate from children in a study.2 Even if a child would very much like to be a research participant it is ultimately the decision of the parent, the school, and ethics committees – not the child’s to make.
