ABSTRACT
Both critics and defenders of the trials are pleased with the development; the critics because use of placebos has been halted, the defenders because the trials produced decisive, reliable data that policymakers in developing countries can use. The AZT trials in developing countries replay this classic dilemma. The HIV-infected woman wants the therapy most likely to prevent transmission of the disease to her infant. The equipoise standard offers a resolution of the tension between individual and communal interests inherent in all clinical trials. The controversial National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) trials randomly assigned HIV-infected women to either a short course of AZT or to a placebo. These trials also raise a special problem, however. Their aim is not the usual aim of clinical research: a medically superior therapy. Instead, their goal is to find an effective therapy practical for general use in countries where health resources are extremely limited.
