The exercises in this section on ethics are designed to help you think about the issues that we are discussing and to formulate some opinions. In general, there are no wrong or right answers but you need to give reasons for your answers.

Question 3.76

3.76 Should the treatments be given to everyone?

Effective drugs for treating AIDS are very expensive, so most African nations cannot afford to give them to large numbers of people. Yet AIDS is more common in parts of Africa than anywhere else. Several clinical trials being conducted in Africa are looking at ways to prevent pregnant mothers infected with HIV from passing the infection to their unborn children, a major source of HIV infections in Africa. Some people say these trials are unethical because they do not give effective AIDS drugs to their subjects, as would be required in rich nations. Others reply that the trials are looking for treatments that can work in the real world in Africa and that they promise benefits at least to the children of their subjects. What do you think?