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.to think of the future and wait was merelyanother way of saying one was a coward.ability to understand aquestion from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action.Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man.30This chapter has dealt with trying to avoid technologically induced catas-trophies that would necessitate a funeral oration by a posthuman Periclesstand-in on behalf of the human species itself.In the next chapter I take upa more immediate topic, the right to health. This page intentionally left blank 5Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë%The Right to Healthctivists in South Africa succeeded in returning health as a humanright to the international stage just as it was being displaced byAeconomists who see health through the prism of a globalizedeconomy and politicians who see it as an issue of national security or char-ity.1 The current postapartheid debate in South Africa is not about race,but about health, and in this context the court victory by AIDS activistsregarding nevirapine has been termed not only the greatest defeat forMbeki s government but also the opening of legitimate criticism of thegovernment over a host of issues from land rights to the pursuit of wealth. 2Using the South African nevirapine case as a centerpiece, in this chapter Iexplore the utility of the often misunderstood international human right tohealth to improve health generally.Jonathan Mann rightly observed that health and human rights are in-extricably linked, 3 and Paul Farmer has argued that the most importantquestion facing modern medicine involves human rights. Farmer noted thatmany poor people have no access to modern medicine, concluding, Themore effective the treatment, the greater the injustice meted out to those whodo not have access to care. 4 Access to treatment for HIV/AIDS has been59 60 Bioethics and Human Rightsproblematic in almost every country but has perhaps been most frustratingin South Africa, where more than 5 million people are infected with HIVand the government s attitude toward the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been de-scribed as pseudoscientific and dangerous.5 Political resistance by the SouthAfrican government to outside funders who seek to set the country s healthcare agenda is, of course, understandable in the context of a history of racismand colonialism.6 But understandable politics cannot excuse the government sfailure to act decisively in the face of an unprecedented epidemic.HIV Infection and the Right to HealthOne of the most controversial actions of the South African governmenthas been its drastic restriction of the use of nevirapine to prevent the trans-mission of HIV from mother to infant.The Treatment Action Campaign,a coalition of South African AIDS-related organizations, was formed in 1998to promote affordable treatment to all people with HIV infection or AIDS.This group (and others) celebrated a victory in 2001 when 39 multinationalpharmaceutical companies withdrew their lawsuit against the South Afri-can government to enforce patents on HIV/AIDS treatment drugs, whichwould have prevented the government from purchasing generic versions.7At about the same time, the Treatment Action Campaign itself broughtsuit against the South African government.The suit alleged that govern-mental restrictions on the availability of nevirapine (limiting it in the publicsector to hospitals involved in a pilot study) and the failure to have a reason-able government plan to make the drug more widely available violated theright to health of South African HIV-positive pregnant women and theirchildren.The use of nevirapine remains controversial in Africa, even after aUganda study published in 1999 suggested that administering the drug to apregnant woman at the outset of labor and to her newborn immediately afterbirth could result in a 50 percent reduction in the rate of transmission ofHIV.8 This study was the basis for the claim that failure to use nevirapinecondemns 35,000 newborns a year to HIV infection in South Africa [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.to think of the future and wait was merelyanother way of saying one was a coward.ability to understand aquestion from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action.Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man.30This chapter has dealt with trying to avoid technologically induced catas-trophies that would necessitate a funeral oration by a posthuman Periclesstand-in on behalf of the human species itself.In the next chapter I take upa more immediate topic, the right to health. This page intentionally left blank 5Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë% Ë%The Right to Healthctivists in South Africa succeeded in returning health as a humanright to the international stage just as it was being displaced byAeconomists who see health through the prism of a globalizedeconomy and politicians who see it as an issue of national security or char-ity.1 The current postapartheid debate in South Africa is not about race,but about health, and in this context the court victory by AIDS activistsregarding nevirapine has been termed not only the greatest defeat forMbeki s government but also the opening of legitimate criticism of thegovernment over a host of issues from land rights to the pursuit of wealth. 2Using the South African nevirapine case as a centerpiece, in this chapter Iexplore the utility of the often misunderstood international human right tohealth to improve health generally.Jonathan Mann rightly observed that health and human rights are in-extricably linked, 3 and Paul Farmer has argued that the most importantquestion facing modern medicine involves human rights. Farmer noted thatmany poor people have no access to modern medicine, concluding, Themore effective the treatment, the greater the injustice meted out to those whodo not have access to care. 4 Access to treatment for HIV/AIDS has been59 60 Bioethics and Human Rightsproblematic in almost every country but has perhaps been most frustratingin South Africa, where more than 5 million people are infected with HIVand the government s attitude toward the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been de-scribed as pseudoscientific and dangerous.5 Political resistance by the SouthAfrican government to outside funders who seek to set the country s healthcare agenda is, of course, understandable in the context of a history of racismand colonialism.6 But understandable politics cannot excuse the government sfailure to act decisively in the face of an unprecedented epidemic.HIV Infection and the Right to HealthOne of the most controversial actions of the South African governmenthas been its drastic restriction of the use of nevirapine to prevent the trans-mission of HIV from mother to infant.The Treatment Action Campaign,a coalition of South African AIDS-related organizations, was formed in 1998to promote affordable treatment to all people with HIV infection or AIDS.This group (and others) celebrated a victory in 2001 when 39 multinationalpharmaceutical companies withdrew their lawsuit against the South Afri-can government to enforce patents on HIV/AIDS treatment drugs, whichwould have prevented the government from purchasing generic versions.7At about the same time, the Treatment Action Campaign itself broughtsuit against the South African government.The suit alleged that govern-mental restrictions on the availability of nevirapine (limiting it in the publicsector to hospitals involved in a pilot study) and the failure to have a reason-able government plan to make the drug more widely available violated theright to health of South African HIV-positive pregnant women and theirchildren.The use of nevirapine remains controversial in Africa, even after aUganda study published in 1999 suggested that administering the drug to apregnant woman at the outset of labor and to her newborn immediately afterbirth could result in a 50 percent reduction in the rate of transmission ofHIV.8 This study was the basis for the claim that failure to use nevirapinecondemns 35,000 newborns a year to HIV infection in South Africa [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]