Treatment versus Prevention in the Fight against HIV/AIDS and the Problem of Identified versus Statistical Lives

Tür:

Kitap Bölümü

Yazar:

Johann Frick

Yayın yılı:

2015

Yayıncı:

Oxford University Press

Abstract For years, debates about the best way to combat the AIDS pandemic have pitted proponents of scaling up antiretroviral treatment for people suffering from AIDS against those advocating for more cost-effective prevention measures. In an important recent article, Dan Brock and Daniel Wikler argue that there is no sound moral basis to privilege the saving of identified lives through antiretroviral treatment, if preventive methods could save more (statistical) lives. This chapter takes issue with Brock and Wikler's argument. In so doing, it develops a novel account of how the choice between "treatment" and "prevention" intersects the problem of identified versus statistical lives. The chapter concludes with a postscript on "treatment-as-prevention" (TasP), a new avenue of HIV/AIDS research that stresses the preventive benefits of early antiretroviral treatment. It argues that, despite its medical promise, TasP does not transcend the ethical dichotomy between treatment and prevention explored in this chapter.

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