|
|
Abstract
Ethics in experimentation of neo-traditional treatments for HIV/AIDS in Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal: relativism vs. universalism
E. Simon1, M. Egrot2, A. Traore3, E. Sambieni4, A. Sanon3, B. Taverne5
Background: For about twenty years, neo-traditional treatments for PLWHA have appeared within the therapeutic space of AIDS in Africa. Some of these treatments have undergone experimentation on human beings. These experiments, reflected in the syncretism of the products that they test, follow a culturally idiosyncratic, hybrid approach in terms of research protocol and ethical principles.
Methods: Data were gathered in urban areas through anthropological and qualitative methods based on interviews with the various actors involved in the experiments (tradi-practitioners, healers and patients).
Results: Various discrepancies from international ethical standards have been observed. Moreover, the involved health care professionals are often unfamiliar with these standards. An anthropological approach for these experiments - sites that manifest ethno-ethics - enables a better understanding of how involved actors sometimes make ambiguous choices that may be disputed relative to international guidelines for medical research-ethics standards.
These experiments are often marginal and seem to be a social critique of the hegemony of biomedical sciences. Hence, they could possibly encourage an overhaul of the principles guiding clinical research. However, this critical tendency can also take the form of an unproductive cultural appeal: promoting traditional therapies while consideration of the benefits or risks for the patients who participate in these experiments becomes secondary.
Conclusions: Therapeutic experiments carried out with human beings in resource poor settings, particularly in the case of AIDS, give rise to controversies and debates. Analysis of the ethical discrepancies occurring in clinical trials currently being conducted both in the South and North should now expand to include experiments conducted on neo-traditional treatments. A critical-reflexive approach for the scientific methods, ethical plans and regulatory frameworks of these experiments is needed.
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference
Abstract no.
MOPE1088
Suggested Citation
"E.Simon, et al.
Ethics in experimentation of neo-traditional treatments for HIV/AIDS in Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal: relativism vs. universalism.
:
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference:
Abstract no.
MOPE1088"
|
|
|