A Disease of the Body, A Disease of the System

The Principles of Ethicalism include: respect for persons, justice, beneficence, proportionality, and cultural humility (Study Results). Yet these four principles are lacking in the medical system for African patients infected with HIV/AIDS.

Although having to go through ethical checkpoints in medical research studies can slow progress, it is unfair to patients to bypass these ethical regulations because it jeopardizes their safety (Study Results). Clinical trials being conducted are often not done with accurate ethical procedure due to a lack of knowledge about such regulations or because it requires additional work. Instead, medical professionals conduct their own studies without undergoing the proper ethical protocol, which may help them generate more data faster, but also puts their patients in more danger. Attempts to resolve this issue, however, are split between what may be the right thing to do and what would be the best thing to do in order to help as many victims as possible.

Further, out of 161 reports from research studies involving HIV/AIDS gathered in a 20-year period from four different universities in Cameroon, only 77 studies involving human-patient trials stated that the medical researcher had the appropriate informed consent from the patient. Of those 77, only 38 included a copy of the consent form from the patient in their report (Munung). Without certifying that informed consent was given, lawfully, the students conducting these studies are the ones viable instead of the patients; adding to the issue (Oppong). Informed consent is needed in this epidemic to ensure the patient’s safety, which is why the lack of ethical protocol in place in African governments is appalling.

To add to the halt on real progress being made involving HIV/AIDS treatments, many drug corporations look to promote their own pseudo treatments at the potential risk of others; going against all ethical principles. One such man, Matthias Rath, a German-born medical researcher, uses the epidemic to advertise his own nutritional regimen to replace the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in treating the victims of HIV/AIDS (Hodgson). Rath claims that the use of ARVs in medicine is just a ploy used by Drug Companies and International Agencies because of economic and corporate greed. He asserts that ARVs are essentially ineffective despite their popularity (Hodgson). This idea does possess some truth, since “drug companies are often responsible for maintaining high prices, and holding onto drugs patents for as long as possible” (Hodgson). However, although this may be true, it doesn’t account for the countless evidence to back up the use of ARVs in treating HIV/AIDS and since Rath doesn’t have enough substantial evidence to outright reject ARVs, by conducting his unlawful clinical trials, he is putting his patients at risk.

The controversy surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a long and complicated one, intertwined with the immoral wrongs, versus ethical rights, in medical research. What a lot of aspiring medical scientists have to decide is where that line is drawn, and the difference between what may be right, but what also must be done, for the benefit of the African people in the involuntary submission of such a deadly disease.

Works Cited:

Hodgson, Ian. "Alternative Nutritional AIDS Treatments Are Deadly Quackery." AIDS, edited by Viqi Wagner, Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints. Global Issues in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010106297/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=845e4860. Accessed 21 Mar. 2019. Originally published as "Dazed and Confused: The Reality of AIDS Treatment in South Africa," http://opendemocracy.net, 1 Nov. 2006.

Munung, Nchangwi Syntia, et al. "Are students kidding with health research ethics? The case of HIV/AIDS research in Cameroon." BMC Medical Ethics, vol. 13, no. 1, 2012. Global Issues in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534166881/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=c23c4ca4. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.

Oppong, Joseph R. "HIV/AIDS, African Perspectives." Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering: A Global Resource, edited by J. Britt Holbrook, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2015, pp. 459-464. Global Issues in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3727600369/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=d0c5264f. Accessed 14 Mar. 2019.

"Study Results from Simon Fraser University Update Understanding of HIV/AIDS (Ethics of task shifting in the health workforce: exploring the role of community health workers in HIV service delivery in low- and middle-income countries)." AIDS Weekly, 30 July 2018, p. 130. Global Issues in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A548083672/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=e077b12e. Accessed 15 Mar. 2019.