Journal ofMedical Ethics 1999;25:291-292 Editorial

Research into emergency treatments-could the offer of 'advance directives ' help? Raanan Gillon Imperial College School ofMedicine, University ofLondon In this issue of the journal Peter Allmark, a nurs-ing lecturer and administrator of a European Union bioethics research project into the quality of informed consent for neonatal research projects, analyses a particularly contentious issue in research ethics. ' Is it morally acceptable, at least in some circumstances, to randomise patients into two groups for a research project into emergency treatment of newborn babies prior to obtaining parental consent only for the babies who have been randomised to be offered the non-standard treatment- the so called Zelen 1 method o