Lowering Testing Standards in Third World Countries Essay -- HIV AIDS

Lowering Testing Standards in Third World Countries nobble Recently, Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizens Health Research Group (PCHRG), charged the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) with sponsoring xv im honorable human immunodeficiency virus studies in sub-Saharan Africa. The trials are being conducted to observe if certain alternate medical procedures or a short cartroad of treatment with AZT, zidovudine or other drugs prevent some mother-child HIV transmissions. (1) Since the control group receives only placebos rather than AZT, Wolfe claims that the tests give suboptimal treatment that go out result in more children contracting HIV and aid. (2) Public Citizens Health Research Group and others are calling for an immediate expiration of these important experiments. Public Citizen raises an important righteous question. (3) Is it morally permissible to dismount testing ensamples for the Third World? Unlike PCHRG, I contend that t he firmness of purpose to this question is yes, if the trials meet certain conditions. I explain both the premier(prenominal) Best and Second Best Method (FBM and SBM, respectively) of testing crude drugs and because compare the two. Next, I show the FBMs impracticality in developing countries releases researchers from the moral obligation to use it. I then propose a new set of criteria the Second Best Criteria (SBC) that show if a test is moral or not. Finally, I argue that imposing a developed states moral standards for clinical trials in the Third World is immorally insensitive to the needs and conditions present in the latter area. Section 1In clinical trials there are two different standard protocols for testing new drugs. The First Best Method tests the effects of a known drug (a benchmark), rathe... ...Biotechnology, vol. 11, pp. 135-143.Pederson, Daniel and Eric Larson, Too Poor to Treat Newsweek, 28 July 1997, p. 60.Rath, Richard, Horton Hears the W.H.O. Dissonance, back up and Africa Resource page, 3 June 1996, http/www.way.net/dissonance/nyrb_ltr.html, pp. 1-3.UNAIDS HIV/AIDS The Global pestilent, Press Release, 28 November 1996, http/www.us.unaids.org/highband/document/epidemic/situat96.html, pp. 1-15. HIV/AIDS epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa, 3 July 1997, http/www.hiv.unaids.org/unaids/press/factafr.htm, pp. 1-3. UNAIDS Announces New Clinical Trials for the Prevention of Mother-To-Child transmitting of HIV, Press Release, 9 July 1996, http/www.hiv.unaids.org/unaids/press/mtctpren.html, pp. 1-2No Author Listed AIDS in Africa, The Guide, 9 May 1996, http//www.guidemag.com/newsslant/aids.africa.html. pp.1-2