Striving to find a vaccine against AIDS, scientists set a trial in Haiti. The trial presupposed studying blood samples of HIV-positive people and their partners to see how the virus was transmitted. The partners were offered counseling as to the ways the virus spread and free condoms; however, they were not informed that one of them was infected.
If the vaccine had turned out to be helpful, this could have prevented millions of people from getting infected. On the other hand, the people whose blood samples were studied were highly likely to be exposed to danger anyway. Though the study did not enhance their risks, crucial information was withheld from the subjects. The question arose of how ethical the researchers were in their strive for developing a much-needed vaccine.
In my opinion, the researchers did not fulfill their responsibilities towards the participants as their main responsibility was to inform them about the infection of one of the partners. From the position of duty-based ethics, the researchers’ actions were not ethical, since the participants were not given the full information, no matter how good the intentions were. According to Kant’s theory, however, the researchers’ actions were ethical in the sense that their intention was a good one aimed at saving millions of lives without any benefit to themselves. However, it cannot be said that this action has no exceptions and can be applied to everyone. I believe the majority of participants would prefer to have known about their partner’s decease. Moreover, the Categorical Imperative shows there could have been another moral choice. So, Kant’s theory points to the immorality of the researchers’ actions as well. According to the Doctrine of double effect, however, the action can be called ethical since the potential benefits offset the bad effects (Gibson, 2013). In my opinion, duty-based ethics and Kant’s theory are more reliable in determining the ethics of the action than the Doctrine of double effect, so I believe the researchers’ action cannot be called ethical.
Reference
Gibson, K. (2013). Introduction to Ethics, An. Pearson Higher Ed.