The Cost of Science Knowledge and Ethics in the HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Trials

• Published in: Journal of bioethical inquiry Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 295 - 310
• Main Authors: Patton, Cindy, Kim, Hye Jin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2012
• Subjects: Anti-HIV Agents - adverse effects; Anti-HIV Agents - therapeutic use; Developing Countries; Drugs; Epidemiologic Methods; Ethics; Ethics, Research; Female; Gays; Harm Reduction - ethics; Health and hygiene; Heterosexuality; HIV infections; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Homosexuality, Male; Humans; Male; Medical ethics; Medical Law; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Moral and ethical aspects; Original Research; Prevention; Risk; Testing; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics; Women's Health; HIV/AIDS; Queer health; Risk; Epidemiological methods; Public health
• ISSN: 1176-7529; 1872-4353; 1872-4353
• DOI: 10.1007/s11673-012-9383-x

Over the past decade AIDS research has turned toward the use of pharmacology in HIV prevention, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP): the use of HIV medication as a means of preventing HIV acquisition in those who do not have it. This paper explores the contradictory reasons offered in support of PrEP—to empower women, to provide another risk-reduction option for gay men—as the context for understanding the social meaning of the experimental trials that appear to show that PrEP works in gay men and heterosexual couples but not single women. The PrEP debates reveal the different ideas about “demedicalization” in the earlier gay health and women’s health movements and highlight the relationship between health activism and critique of research ethics in the context of a global pharmaceutical market.