Question

Case Study 3 – Consent

A 14-year-old youth suffering depression does not want to discuss his problems with his parents. He seeks help from a community health centre. On his first visit he is provided with counselling and asked to return for a second visit where the possibility of medication will be discussed. He is reassured that his parents do not have to be involved if he does not want them to be. Researchers from the centre are looking for people to take part in a study that will find out if a new investigational drug can help in the treatment of depression. They invite the fourteen-year-old to participate in the randomised controlled trial. The researchers say that parental consent is not needed for the 14-year-old to access treatment so they do not need to obtain parental consent for him to participate in the research.
Questions
Is the researcher’s view correct?
Does it depend on the nature of the reasarch?

Answer 1

Personally, I don’t think the researches view is correct. It’s good that they want to help young adults/kids with depression, but when conducting a research project about it on a child/young adult the parents should be included so they can verify that it is okay for their child to participate. And yes, I think it does depend on the nature of the research because it could be a very bad research topic or it could be a helpful one. Either way I think if it is a child or teenager who is asked to participate in these their parents should be included in verifying that it is okay for them to participate.


Hopefully this helped! :)