Paralysis in AIDS vaccine development violates ethical principles and human rights.

: Although a preventive vaccine is essential for controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic and AIDS vaccine candidates exist, field trials of AIDS vaccine candidates are still not underway. Reasons for field trials of HIV vaccines not being underway include: ethical issues regarding how such trials would be conducted, fear that trial failure would make successive trials impossible to conduct, and controversy among the scientific community that the current crop of vaccines will effectively protect against HIV infection. Explanations for why none of these arguments are realistic reasons for delays in testing are provided. The ethical and human rights issues underlying the failure to proceed with field trials are also explored.