Nor have 90 per cent of the drugs used to treat newborn babies.
A House of Lords subcommittee is pushing for proper drug trials. Butthere are ethical issues. Individuals can give informed consent to atrial.
With children, guidelines say consent must come from someone withparental responsibility. Those adults may withdraw the child at anytime.
But are children allowed to refuse to take part? Can they ask to bewithdrawn?
No. The health minister Jane Kennedy is afraid children might refuse todo something "on a whim". She stuck by the Government's position thatchildren should not have a veto on their own participation. Their viewsshould be "considered" by the grown-ups. That's all.
The Lords committee was not impressed. "We are very troubled by thisissue and not convinced from the evidence that it has so far been giventhe necessary serious consideration." Excellently put, m'luds &m'ladies.
Have a children's rights supporters badge.
- Smash Hits is no more. The circulation of the pop magazine forteenagers has dropped from a million to 120,000, and it has beenscrapped by its publishers.
The Times quoted one industry insider: "The target audience becameyounger and younger, so you were writing for pre-pubescents."
So the writers would have been relieved to switch to an older agegroup.
The music mags that are successful are for old people. This makessense.
People in their forties buy more pop albums than teenagers thesedays.
- An insurance company is promoting a study of gadgets in children'sbedrooms. It's presumably designed to scare people into upping theirinsurance.
Phil Loney, managing director at Lloyds TSB Insurance, told the BBC:"Our survey shows British youngsters are quite literally sleeping on agold mine."
Sack your publicist, Phil. You can't scaremonger unless you know whatliterally means.
SOUNDBITE
"Some pupils jiggle so much to attract the teacher's attention that itsometimes looks as if they need the lavatory"
Andrew Buck, head of Jo Richardson comprehensive in east London, whichhas banned pupils from putting up their hands to answer questions.
