Lump sums for children taking part in research may distort parents' judgment

Gift vouchers, book tokens, videos, and savings bonds instead of cash could be used as payments for children who have taken part in clinical trials.

An 11 point plan designed to deal with ethical concerns over payments made to children and their parents also proposes that any payments should be small, or deferred, and directed at the child.

The US ethicists who have outlined the plan in a new report say that a rigid ban on payments may be counterproductive.

“An alternative approach, advocated by the European Union, is to ban all …