Vatican official says human life, not profit, top goal of health care

Published: 2004-02-05

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Modern medical crises like AIDS and a new strain of Asian bird flu challenge the health care community to set aside the profit motive and show new forms of solidarity with the suffering, a top Vatican cardinal said. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, said patent rights over anti-AIDS drugs, for example, may not be legitimate in places like Africa, where millions of people face death. "Patents (on medicines) are legitimate, for reasons of scientific research and for a just profit margin. But, like all private property, there is a social mortgage on these patents," Cardinal Lozano said at a Vatican press conference Feb. 5. "Where human life is at stake, the right of private property ends," he said. Cardinal Lozano noted that the annual cost of effective AIDS medicines already has gone down drastically, from some $15,000 to about $350 per patient. That is important progress, but it is still too high a price for many Africans to pay, he said.

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