Ethical problems raised by anti-HIV vaccination.
At present questions are being asked world-wide about the risk of the AIDS epidemic. The discovery of an anti-HIV vaccine has become an urgent priority, but it also raises a number of sensitive questions. Ethical problems in this field are particularly delicate, since the perspectives of individual health and public health do not seem to coincide. Our research team conducted a review of more than 400 articles on the ethical problems raised by AIDS. We concentrated particularly on the ethical and legal issues raised by research on anti-HIV vaccine. These problems fall into three main categories: therapeutic assays, which must be controlled by a strict agreement defined by international norms; manufacture of the future vaccine, raising legal difficulties which must be faced and solved now; distribution of the vaccine to the population, which should be conducted on a general basis, i.e. it should be offered to all individuals and not only to risk groups.
Enel
P
P
Public Health Department, Faculté de Medecine, Marseille, France.
Charrel
J
J
Larher
M P
MP
Reviron
D
D
Manuel
C
C
San Marco
J L
JL
D032761:Animal Experimentation; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D033161:Government Regulation; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D037141:Mandatory Programs; D008402:Mass Media; D033281:Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation; D018579:Patient Selection; D035842:Research Subjects; D036302:Therapeutic Human Experimentation; D014611:Vaccination / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D035141:Voluntary Programs