The much awaited WHO ethics advisory group on the use of experimental drugs to combat Ebola has issued its statement. While a start it is no more than a baby step.
The advisory panel did decide that they found the case for using experimental drugs in African populations ethical. While they did not say much about why they reached this conclusion it seems valid in that when facing a deadly plague the overwhelming majority of people infected would want a drug, even one that has barely been tested, to try to save themselves or a family member. In reaching this conclusion the committee puts to rest the argument that experimental drugs could not go to Africans at all or ought to go to Americans or Europeans first in order to avoid the charge of exploitation. In a plague that kills 90% of its African victims complaints about unwarranted exploitative research seem a bit ridiculous even against a long history of misuse and abuse of poor desperate persons in poor African nations.
The committee did not say a good deal more other than that informed consent and choice ought to be respected. This is far less helpful.
