Topic: The Ethics of Experimental Treatments
Country: Libya
Delegate Name: Pooja Patel
School: Grand Blanc High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Libya position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
We, the country of Libya, believe that experimental treatments have the potential to provide us with many beneficial solutions. The accumulation of political unrest in our country has significantly affected our health status. During times of unrest, sanitary conditions are very rare. Access to medical centers is very limited, due to damage to the centers or a lack of workers. Lack of resources is a big issue. All kinds of diseases become more prevalent. Chronic diseases like Hepatitis C and HIV are dangerously on the verge of becoming out of control due to a lack of medical supplies. The health care system has deteriorated over the years after the political conflicts began.
There is evidence that when there was access to certain drugs, the Libyan’s health was doing well overall (prior to the conflict). Therefore, the ethical matters of experimental drugs are not a direct issue to a country where they don’t have access to major drugs to begin with. However, we are very grateful to the shipment of drugs to our country and whatever help we have gotten and get. In a country stricken with many diseases and very few healthcare facilities, any help is appreciated. However, there was a scandal in 1998 in Libya called the HIV Scandal, in which Bulgarian nurses were accused of deliberately trying to spread HIV to children in a hospital by not following proper healthcare protocols. It was found that the behavior of the nurses in regards to healthcare protocols was not directly responsible for the outbreak, as for the outbreak had started before the nurses had arrived to work at the hospital. However, this does not change the fact that our country needs healthcare help; it just makes it more impertinent. This scandal raised the issue of diseases like HIV and AIDS and the helplessness of many countries in regards to them.
The recent outbreak of Ebola on our continent provides another scare for our country. Yes, Ebola is mainly concentrated in West Africa but many of our African countries are still considered developing countries and do not have usable medical facilities. This adds on to the list of diseases our country fears. The experimental drug trials going on with regards to Ebola are considered as very beneficial for us because that is the solution we need. We are unable to provide ourselves with something that is a pure necessity for a country like ours. A resolution providing improvements on healthcare including medical supplies and necessary cutting edge drugs will be seen as most favorable.
