research and development

The Seattle Biomedical Research Institute is doing research on malaria vaccines. They are wanting to find out if the vaccines work. Since they do not know if the vaccines work, they are looking for volunteers who will try the vaccines and then hold a cup of mosquitoes that are infected with the most deadly form of malaria to their arm so they are bitten. This study is a continuation of a study that start at Walter Reed Army Institute of Maryland is is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Since people are being asked to be infected with malaria, this brings up all kinds of ethical questions. First of all, would these people get seriously ill and even die? According to the researchers this would not happen and people would only have flu like symptoms for about a single day.

However, while the researchers may be able to try to control the mosquitoes to the best of their abilities, it is uncertain that these people may not have some type of allergic reaction or end up getting some type of disease or other infection from the mosquitoes.

Also, would malaria spread if these people are out in the community? Researchers say that the malaria will not get to a point where it is infectious from person to person. Most likely this is true since they know the research that has already been happening.

Of course, the volunteers are given $2,000 for participating. The researchers have said that this is mainly compensation for missing work or replacing funds used to get to the site and any other costs volunteers may incur.

While this sounds a little bit on the dangerous sides, there are benefits as a whole. People really do care about others in third world country who are often infected with malaria and do not survive because vaccines do not exist and they cannot afford the medication. Thus, people who want to make sure that vaccines will be available to these people may have an urge to volunteer for this program.

While I like the idea of getting vaccines to people in third world countries, no amount of money would make me go get a vaccine that may or may not work and be infected with a possibly deadly disease. While I know that only flu like symptoms should occur, I would be scared that something would go wrong.

I want to live my life and not be willingly infected with a disease. I would be scared that I'd have something in my body or have some type of reaction either to the vaccine or to the disease that would end my life suddenly.

While I know that I can't control the length of my own life, I can try to take care of myself so I have a good life. I want to be able to spend time with my friends, my family, and my dog. If anything were to happen because of this, the money, no matter how much of an amount, would not do me any good. While it could help my family, it would not ease the pain of the loss.

I'd rather earn my money honestly than making myself into a medical guinea pig.





Reference research: finance research and law research and general research and recent update




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