Ethical Issue
The search for a cure for AIDS has challenged and puzzled researchers, health care providers, patients, and the public. There are various beliefs, theories, and approaches used to explain how this condition can be controlled or eliminated. Apoorva Mandavilli presents various ethical issues about the cure for AIDS, and this brings a new picture regarding the possibilities of developing cures for this condition.
The success of a bone marrow transplant to cure HIV/AIDS is evident in Timothy Ray Brown, who got healed from this condition and continues to test negative for HIV. This author has highlighted some serious ethical concerns that pose challenges to the efforts to cure and eliminate AIDS. First, he argues that not all bone marrow transplants have successfully cured patients from AIDS.
Secondly, he states that early treatment increases the chances of controlling the spread and effects of this virus, and thus patients must seek medical attention as soon as they realize they are infected. However, he doubts whether bone marrow transplant will work for more than 34 million HIV/AIDS patients. In addition, he is worried that not everybody can afford this approach because it is very expensive and most nations cannot meet its demands.
Reflections on the Article
The article presents an accurate picture of what is happening regarding ongoing researches to cure HIV/AIDS. The information presented by the author shows that this disease has no known cure and the case of Brown may be a result of medical errors or coincidence. The author explains that this is a complicated disease, and a lot has to be done to discover how to control it.
Nations and institutions have invested a lot of money in research and are working very hard to ensure they develop a cure for this disease.1 However, they experience regular failures because the HIV virus mutates and transforms its genetic materials, and this means that scientists must work harder to deal with this menace. It is correct to argue that there has been some achievement in fighting this disease, and the author of this article confirms that there has never been a positive development except for the invention of antiretroviral drugs.
Similar Presentations
Leroy Walters argues that HIV/AIDS has challenged all the aspects of human life by exposing individuals to ethical dilemmas.2 First, he believes that there is a need for scientific progress to find the cure for this disease. However, scientific processes face the risk of violating human rights by causing deaths or discriminating individuals. Issues of animal testing, voluntary counseling, and confidentiality of patient’s information are of major concern. This limits the scope of researchers in finding solutions to this epidemic.
Dorothy H. Crawford in her book, Virus Hunt: The Search for the Origin of HIV, explains that the cure for this condition will be discovered when scientists know how to kill or eliminate the virus from the human body. She claims that suppressing this virus does not help victims because this is a short-term solution that allows it to multiply as it slowly weakens the victim’s body. Therefore, she recommends that there is the need for continuous’ research to focus on the structure of this virus and how it mutates to enable researchers to develop drugs or medical interventions that would kill or eliminate it from the victim’s body.3
Opinion
The fight to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS has been neglected by most nations because they have ignored the need to stop its spread. Therefore, scientists continue to struggle to search for its cure yet their speed is too slow as compared to the high number of new infections reported. The problem with this virus is that it keeps mutating, and that is why it is impossible to get the cure. In addition, this research should incorporate agents of socialization like families, churches and schools to ensure this fight is successful. There is no way a cure for this disease will help all the infected people. Therefore, abstinence and faithfulness are the only effective ways of stopping the spread of this disease, and this will ensure it is wiped from the face of the earth.
References
Crawford, D. H. (2013). Virus Hunt: The Search for the Origin of HIV. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mandavilli, A. (2012). The Cure for AIDS. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holt, N. (2014). Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science. New York: Dutton Adult.
Footnotes
- Crawford 2013: 67.
- Holt 2014: 26.
- Mandavilli 2012: 163.