THE ETHICS OF HIV RESEARCH IN DEVELOPING-NATIONS

This paper discusses a dispute concerning the ethics of research on pr eventing the perinatal transmission of HIV in developing nations. Crit ics of this research argue that it is unethical because it denies a pr oven treatment to placebo-control groups. Since studies conducted in d eveloped nations would not deny this treatment to subjects, the critic s maintain that these experiments manifest a double standard for ethic al research and that a single standard of ethics should apply to all r esearch on human subjects. Proponents of the research, however, argue that these charges fail to understand the ethical complexities of rese arch in developing nations, and that study designs can vary according to the social, economic, and scientific conditions of research. This e ssay explores some of the ethical issues raised by this controversial case in order to shed some light on the deeper, meta-ethical questions . The paper argues that standards of ethical research on human subject s are universal but not absolute: there are some general ethical princ iples that apply to all cases of human subjects research but the appli cation of these principles must take into account factors inherent in particular situations.