Children whichever their age cannot wait any longer!

FULL VERSION (PDF) of our article:
https://www.cerped.fr/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/260127-CERPed-inclusion-enfants_ENG.pdf
Clinical research involving children of all ages must be promoted and developed, from the youngest—newborns and infants—to the oldest—adolescents—and including children of intermediate age. This is an urgent ethical imperative: to generate research data that will enable access to medical progress.

Without this data, children suffer from untreatable illnesses, are exposed to treatments whose efficacy and safety have not been validated, or are subjected to the long-term effects of harsh treatments they may have received.

Children are not simply miniature adults, and their physiological and pathological characteristics often differ from those of adults, frequently justifying dedicated research. Their illnesses are often specific, but sometimes share therapeutic targets with certain adult diseases. For example, it is ethically unacceptable for age to be the sole criterion for preventing access to an adult clinical trial that is otherwise justified for adolescents, while ensuring that such trials can be conducted in an appropriate setting.

Research involving children must be ethical, safe, and tailored to their needs, conducted by trained teams. Protocols must be developed in collaboration with parents or parent associations and with children of an age to participate in research. These protocols must then be reviewed by Ethics Committees with pediatric expertise to ensure that parental consent and the children’s assent (acceptance) are used to ensure their safety and well-being.

There must be no more excuses or delays in generating knowledge for the benefit of children of all ages, including newborns, who cannot yet make their voices heard.