Balancing the rights of the sick with the rights of the healthy

At our last few meetings, our GlobalHealthU discussions have considered the question “Who has more rights than others?” Last week, we talked about the rights of the sick versus the rights of the healthy. We looked at various ethical scenarios, including quarantining a village to prevent the spread of multidrug-resistant TB. There was actually a surprising amount of disagreement about whose rights the government should be focusing on. Should we work to take care of the sick, or focus on keeping the healthy from getting sick?

I think this TED talk by Boghuma Kabisen Titanji about the problems for patients in developing countries involved in HIV research trials is an interesting example of the rights of the sick versus the rights of the healthy. While these research trials are invaluable in the search for better HIV treatments, patients are often left in the lurch after the trials end. In this situation, the sick have basically no rights-- they can choose to participate in a trial, with little to no understanding of what the trial is about and what will happen to them when the trial is over, or they get no treatment at all. To balance the rights of the sick with the rights of the healthy, Titanji stresses the importance of informed consent and examination of the cost and availability of treatments used in clinical trials. This way, patients would know what they were getting into, and would be able to continue to receive treatment after the end of the trial.

-Anna H.