Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990 TAG: 9003142621
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROME LENGTH: Medium
Archbishop Roger Mahony also said he had been questioned about his appeal by Vatican officials but that they were not concerned after learning details of the plan.
Critics say the prototype vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, father of the polio vaccine, could accidentally infect the volunteers with the deadly AIDS virus.
Acting on a request from a scientist at the Norris Cancer Institute at the University of Southern California, Mahony sent a letter last month to 1,400 priests and 2,400 nuns in his diocese, asking them to consider volunteering to test the vaccine, he said.
"If we wait to try something when every single risk or negative effect has been eliminated or reduced, we would be immobilized as a human society," he declared Tuesday.
Mahony spoke at a news conference called to discuss the appeal, which has generated controversy. The archbishop was on a visit to Rome on separate Vatican business.
He said his request to the clergy was "reasonable" and part of the church's "heroic tradition of outreach" to the sick. He said, however, that the move seemed unprecedented, at least in the United States.
Mahony said the appeal did not imply a change in the church's teaching that homosexual behavior was wrong. AIDS is most commonly transmitted through sexual activity or the sharing of hypodermic needles by drug abusers, and many victims are homosexuals.
The archbishop rejected any suggestion that the church was using the experiment to improve its image on the AIDS issue, declaring the church would not "play games with people's lives."
California authorities have not yet granted permission for the study involving the prototype AIDS vaccine. A key researcher on the project, Dr. Alexandra Levine, said Mahony acted too quickly in sending the letters to the clergy, and that he should have waited until the project was approved.
The archbishop said he had been asked to make the appeal by Dr. Brian Henderson, another leader of the experiment, and had followed "his request and timetable."
Mahony, 54, also said he would consider testing the vaccine himself, except that he was too young for the study.
The experiment is aimed at testing the Salk prototype vaccine on 10 uninfected individuals over age 65 with long, complete medical records. The scientists asked the clergy since the project involved risk, Mahony said.
So far, Salk's prototype vaccine, called HIV-immunogen, has been tested only on people with the human immunodeficiency or HIV virus that causes AIDS. The Salk vaccine uses an inactivated virus, which the scientist also used in developing the polio vaccine.
by CNB