Offering a Global View of Ethics

On Tuesday, July 10, 2012, Dr. Ruth Macklin took part in a special briefing, Assessing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: Past Achievements and Future Prospects," hosted by the journal Health Affairs in Washington, DC. The event, which covered a variety of topics relevant to AIDS relief, included a section on "Issues in Prevention." It was during this session that Dr. Macklin presented "Given Financial Constraints, It Would Be Unethical to Divert Antiretroviral Drugs from Treatment to Prevention."

Dr. Macklin, who is a world-renowned and a frequently sought expert concerning ethics in science and medicine, also has published a new book, Ethics in Global Health: Research, Policy, and Practice (Oxford University Press). The book offers a compilation of Dr. Macklin's previously published articles that span more than two decades and represent her pioneering work in ethics and global health.

As the inside flap of her book notes, "Throughout her discussion of various global health problems, Macklin consistently defends the universality of ethical principles, despite cultural differences that exist around the globe, and criticizes the view that double standards in research are acceptable: one standard for rich countries, and a lower standard for developing countries."

Einstein's Global Health Center will hold a reception and book signing to celebrate this latest publication on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, beginning at 4 p.m., in the Dean's Conference Room, Belfer 303. Dr. Macklin is professor of epidemiology & population health, the Dr. Shoshanah Trachtenberg Frackman Faculty Scholar in Biomedical Ethics and co-director of an NIH Fogarty International Center training program in research ethics. She also is an adviser to the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Bioethics.