I tend to agree with the FDA's position in regard to paying individuals to participate in clinical research studies. The main issue at play here is the effect that payments may have on an individual's freely given voluntary consent, which is necessary to obtain before enrolling an individual in a study. The FDA's position is that such payments should be considered a recruitment incentive, rather than as part of the risks and benefits or participating. An IRB can adequately review the clinical trial to determine that the proposed benefits outweigh the risk to the individual, and then that risk vs. benefit calculation can be explained to the individual to allow them to consider whether they would like to participate. The tricky part of the equation is figuring out how much should be paid to participants so that the monetary incentive does not cross the line into coercive territory