In a Reuters Health article, Bioethics Program Director Robert Klitzman addresses the issues surrounding institutional review boards, or IRBs, and their requirement that gay and bisexual adolescents receive parental consent before participating in HIV prevention studies.
It’s possible that many young men are afraid to ask their parents for permission, which may be resulting in large gaps of knowledge in scientific studies.
To further complicate matters, Klitzman says, IRBs tend to be very conservative around issues of sex. “I would hope that IRBs would realize at points it would be impossible to get parental permission,” he says.
Read the article in its entirety on Reuters.
