Can “best interests” justify child participation in medical research?

This paper will look at how the best interests test in English lawhas been extended from its traditional role in medical treatment cases tocases of administering innovative treatment and conducting medical research.In doing so, this paper seeks to pose one fundamental question: isthere sufficient justification for extending application of the best intereststest into the realm of research? This paper will focus on cases of innovativetreatment to illustrate that application of the best interests test in suchmatters is flawed because it focuses too narrowly on the interests of theindividual child participant rather than viewing that individual child as beingwithin a wider network of relationships. I propose that if we view“best interests” differently, through the lens of care theory, a theory thatemphasises human interdependency and mutually supporting relations,there is greater potential to effectively accommodate both sets of interestsinvolved and strike a more appropriate balance between these sets of interests:(I) the interests of the individual child participant with the interestsof the community of children, and (II) the interests of the individualchild participant with those in caring relationships with the child who willbe impacted by any decision to participate in research in terms of caringfor the child. To illustrate my argument with reference to cases of innovativetreatment, I suggest that rather than claiming innovative treatment isin the “best interests” of the individual child participant, a more effectiveapproach would be to consider a dual “interests” test: is the innovativetreatment “not against the interests” of the individual child participant and“in the interests” of the community of children? And if the answer to bothis in the affirmative then the innovative treatment should be administered.