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Consent for minors

Informed consent for children should follow the usual proxy consent procedures with one unique consideration. The banking of children's tissue and information is unique for its potential longevity of use. In addition, children who later become adults may never have been informed that their tissue was banked during a childhood illness. IRBs should consider requiring re-notifying and re-consenting tissues collected from children once they become eighteen years old if tissue remains in the repository and the link is still active. Such notification allows adults to decide for themselves about the banking and use of their tissue and associated information. With unlinked tissue, this contact would be both impossible and unnecessary.