Sex virus? Implicazioni etiche e politiche della ricerca sull’Aids

Abstract

It is commonly thought that science is an ‘happy island’ where high standards of methodological and ethical rigour leave scarce room for unfairness, briberies, and frauds. However, a recently published book on Aids research (Luca Rossi, Sex virus, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1999) suggests that this is not always the case. Rossi’s book, which includes a number of enlightening interviews both with the supporters and the critics of the ‘standard view’ about Aids, is a good starting point for rethinking the Hiv-Aids causal hypothesis.

In this paper it is argued that: 1) the standard Hiv-Aids hypothesis has been accepted - basically for extra-scientifical reasons - without sufficient confirming evidence; 2) there are well-grounded criticisms to the standard view, which are supported by respected members of scientific community; 3) these criticisms are subject to a systematic censorship; 4) the rules of funding in Aids research do not warrant an adequate economical support to the critics of the standard view.

A general lesson which can be drawn from Aids research is that any intellectual, political, and economical obstacle to the proliferation of competing programmes of research is an obstacle to progress in any field of scientific enterprise.