The TRIPS Agreement and Access to HIV Medications: An ethical discussion

Abstract: With over 30 million people infected with HIV today, it has become an epidemic. Without a cure, HIV continues to be a threat to health and development. In 1994, the TRIPS Agreement, administered by the World Trade Organization came into effect. The Agreement which aims inter-alia to increase patenting in order to promote research and development has been questioned in it's effects on affordable access to HIV medications in the least-developed and developing countries. In this thesis, the TRIPS Agreement's purposes are thus analysed according to two ethical theories and their modern versions, deontology and utilitarianism/consequentialism. This analysis is made in order to seek the ethical responsibilities that the World Trade Organization has in relation to the TRIPS Agreement. The thesis findings conclude through the careful consideration of each ethical theories, and by asking additional questions than those offered in the theories, that the WTO has the ethical responsibility to reform the TRIPS Agreement so as to, at the least, not include pharmaceutical products.