A cure for AIDS?

[Ice]

Come on, Ghost908, that would be extremely rude and it would certainly violate that man's human and civil rights as well as his physical integrity.

If could save millions of lives doing it? You bet I would.

[GoreBag]

I remember hearing about how some prostitutes in Africa are immune to AIDS. They lack a certain part of some cell which is necessary for the viral agents to spread...I don't really know all the details.

Yeah, my father's a biochemist.

This case seems like a hoax at worst and a mistake at best.

[Adrian II]

If could save millions of lives doing it? You bet I would.

So would I! That's what I meant ^^.

[Ja'chyra]

It's a valid question though.

If he is in fact cured and further testing on him could save literally millions of lives should he be forced to submit to the testing?

If he is forced is it tantamount to torture?

But I do wonder, if this person is not willing to contribute to his fellow man does society have any obligation to contribute to him?

What do you mean? He could be a normal hard working man who pays his taxes and supports his family (granted he looks like a ned) if he wants to be left alone to get on with his life shouldn't he be allowed to?

What if the tests where painful? Would you subject yourself to them? Or what about your young child? All to save some people you will never know?

I don't think it's so black and white, personally I would let them have some blood and would at least talk to them about what other tests they wanted to do. But saying that he should be forced to to save others is a bit off, what if the testing required his death?

I think he should be encouraged to help but not forced.

[Byzantine Mercenary]

Its phesable that this man may have inherited immunity to aids, but to remove all trace of it?
There is still a lot about the human body that we do not yet know, but surely there must be some trace left behind by the virus even if it is destroyed.

[English assassin]

Interesting qu about forced testing. (On this being a "cure", I am pretty doubtful. He only ever tested positive for antibodies, not viral RNA, and while two false positives (or false negatives) are very unlikely my judgement is they are not as unlikely as removing HIV with vitamins. Incidentally did you know if you have one positive test for HIV it is still more likely than not that you don't have it? The small % of false positives in the large uninfected population outnumbers the true positives in the small infected population. But I digress.)

Its a real life take on the old challenge to utilitarianism , namely if you could make many people happy by making one person miserable, would you? In general my answer to that qu is no, the trouble with utilitarianism being that it fails to respect the individual sufficiently. Happiness can't be averaged.

Here, though, I am afraid my principles fail me and if I really thought this person did have the secret to a cure I would haul his arse labwards PDQ.

Fortunately through the wonders of capitalism this will not be necessary. If he did hold a cure a drug company would be willing to pay him millions to sit through some tests. If altruism won't get him self interest presumably will. I actually think that is an example of the western system working quite well.

[Reverend Joe]

There is also a possibility that his first test was wrong, and he is just nervous now.