Dr Tom Kerns
North Seattle Community College

 

Jenner On Trial

Tom Kerns

 

 

 

 

Chapter 8

 

One final word

 

And what overall moral conclusions might we draw about today's proposed HIV vaccine experiments?

Some critics might be heard worrying that they can see in today's pharmaceutical companies a dangerous Nazi-like willingness to exploit The Other in lesser developed communities, in hopes of discovering scientific gains that can benefit "Us" in more developed communities, and thereby generate significant income for investors in those companies. While it may be true that some investors, some government policy makers, or some CEOs in pharmaceutical companies could be this greedy, heartless and misanthropic, I am not personally inclined to the cynical view that most are this way. I believe that there are many people, some in positions of political and economic power and some not, who genuinely recognize that we are in the midst of a major global disaster that is causing untold human suffering, and who truly want to be part of a solution that does something about it.

Moreover, I believe that the manner in which we as a people deal with large scale, lethal epidemic disease is indeed a test of our science, our politics and our economic structures. But even more significantly than these, the manner in which we face these challenges will be seen ultimately, and most importantly, as a test of our humanity. It will be seen as a test of our worthiness as a species.

If this is true, then Dr Jenner acquitted himself admirably well in the test, the Nazis did not, and we today are still in the thick of the test.

Whether the disease be plague, smallpox, cholera, typhus, malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, Ebola or any other of the dread infectious diseases, new or old, that can make life on earth so difficult and fragile, let us hope that we, in the midst of our own epidemic diseases, recognize what is at stake. May we realize that our humanness is being challenged at least as much as our science is being challenged. And may we acquit ourselves well.

 

Jenner homepage and Table of Contents
preface | Introduction | chp 1 | chp 2 | chp 3 | chp 4
cchp 5 | chp 6 | chp 7 | chp 8 | App I | App II
Ethical Issues in HIV Vaccine Trials