Legislation and review of medical research with minors in The Netherlands

In The Netherlands medical research with minors is regulated in the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act. During the legislation process in the Houses of Parliament in the 1990s the issue of nontherapeutic research with minors and incapacitated subjects was heavily debated. Stringent regulations were formulated for this type of research and the Act became operational in December 1999. In order to implement the Clinical Trial Directive 2001/20/EG, the Act was modified on several issues. However, the Act was not modified on the issue of non-therapeutic research with minors and incapacitated subjects. As a result at present the Dutch law is more restrictive on non-therapeutic research with minors than the EU Directive. Currently, discussion is ongoing to adapt the Dutch law in order to harmonize it with the EU Directive.