The human immunodeficiency virus, commonly called HIV, is a virus that affects 36.7 million people worldwide. Today, pregnant women have a 25% chance of infecting their child with HIV if not treated properly. Announced by the Public Health Service, the ACTG 076 regimen is the recommended treatment for all HIV-positive pregnant women, and considered the standard of care. Although this procedure is expensive, in modern medicine it can be difficult to bring a new drug to market due to the various procedures and testing required. Often times, there are also ethical considerations that are associated with the procedures. When analyzed through a Utilitarian approach, it is clear that the researchers in Uganda should have used the ACTG 076 protocol
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This would imply that use of a placebo would optimize happiness because overall the death of newborns during research is justified since it will save the lives of many more children in the future. In this scenario, the happiness promoted from saving newborns in the future, outweighs the negativity of losing newborns during clinical trials. The issue with this counter argument is that it does not take into account ethical considerations. Although the WHO concluded a placebo-controlled trial would be the best form, the group did not include any ethicists. Furthermore, in order for scientists to conduct ethical research they are expected to follow the Nuremberg Code, a set of ten ethical principles that govern human experimentation. The fifth point states, “It should not be conducted when there is any reason to believe that it implies a risk of death or disabling injury”. This shows that when the scientists chose to use a placebo-controlled trial, they were causing unnecessary risks, whereas if they compared the drug to the ACTG 076 treatment, it contained less of a risk. Therefore, the use of placebo-controlled trials were …show more content…
The standard of care refers to ‘the best treatment practices’ rather than ‘the most common practice.’ When conducting studies in developing countries, it is important to follow moral guidelines, for example, “The ethical standards applied should be no less exacting than they would be in the case of research carried out in [the sponsoring] country”. This proves that research conducted that upholds the standard of care from the United States is ethical. Although it is within moral guidelines, one may argue that the ACTG 076 protocol cannot be passed on to Uganda because of the high costs of zidovudine, making it hard for many to access. This counter argument is not valid because zidovudine is usually free of charge from the manufacturer, when used for clinical trials. Although it would be difficult for all hospitals to gain access to zidovudine, using the ACTG 076 protocol can potentially help find a regimen that is cheaper. When one is provided with a feasible technique that provides a standard that is better than essentially ‘nothing’, they should use that
This would imply that use of a placebo would optimize happiness because overall the death of newborns during research is justified since it will save the lives of many more children in the future. In this scenario, the happiness promoted from saving newborns in the future, outweighs the negativity of losing newborns during clinical trials. The issue with this counter argument is that it does not take into account ethical considerations. Although the WHO concluded a placebo-controlled trial would be the best form, the group did not include any ethicists. Furthermore, in order for scientists to conduct ethical research they are expected to follow the Nuremberg Code, a set of ten ethical principles that govern human experimentation. The fifth point states, “It should not be conducted when there is any reason to believe that it implies a risk of death or disabling injury”. This shows that when the scientists chose to use a placebo-controlled trial, they were causing unnecessary risks, whereas if they compared the drug to the ACTG 076 treatment, it contained less of a risk. Therefore, the use of placebo-controlled trials were …show more content…
The standard of care refers to ‘the best treatment practices’ rather than ‘the most common practice.’ When conducting studies in developing countries, it is important to follow moral guidelines, for example, “The ethical standards applied should be no less exacting than they would be in the case of research carried out in [the sponsoring] country”. This proves that research conducted that upholds the standard of care from the United States is ethical. Although it is within moral guidelines, one may argue that the ACTG 076 protocol cannot be passed on to Uganda because of the high costs of zidovudine, making it hard for many to access. This counter argument is not valid because zidovudine is usually free of charge from the manufacturer, when used for clinical trials. Although it would be difficult for all hospitals to gain access to zidovudine, using the ACTG 076 protocol can potentially help find a regimen that is cheaper. When one is provided with a feasible technique that provides a standard that is better than essentially ‘nothing’, they should use that