Ethical Dilemmas In The Band Played On

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There were many ethical dilemmas in “The Band Played On”, many of which had to do with money. One of these ethical dilemmas was connected to the owners of the blood banks. They didn’t want to test all their blood for HIV/AIDS because it would cost a lot. Dr. Don Francis then stated “How many people have to die to make it cost efficient for you people to do something about it.” This also came up when the characters started talking about when doctors become businessmen. In the beginning of the movie, a French doctor was threatened to stop treating HIV/AIDS patients because it was scaring other “customers” away. Although not stated in the movie, I also believe that the situation President Reagan was in was an ethical dilemma. If Reagan actually did help fund AIDS research in his first term, his party would see him negatively because he was helping the gay community, which was not something his party supported. If he did this, he would be seen as a hypocrite and probably wouldn’t have been re elected.
The government’s actions seemed very shady and didn’t meet the scope of the issue at hand. The government didn’t give the CDC enough money for research and the issue was not publicized enough, leading to more …show more content…

They do share many similarities, though. For starters, both viruses originated in Africa and are spread through bodily fluid, although not the exact same ones. They both have reached American soil, but only HIV/AIDS became a pandemic. While HIV/AIDS is preventable but asymptomatic, Ebola is extremely contagious and shows clear symptoms within 30 days. They also have many similarities in public opinion. Many have connected the fact that HIV/AIDS and Ebola patients were both treated differently because of their sickness. While HIV/AIDS patients were avoided because people didn’t know enough about the virus, Ebola patients were quarantined for considerable amounts of time, making them wonder if they were still

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