Experimental Ebola Treatments Are Ethical, U.N. Says

The use of experimental, unproven drugs to treat the Ebola virus is ethical, a panel of medical ethicists convened by the World Health Organization found on Tuesday.

"In the particular circumstances of this outbreak, and provided certain conditions are met, the panel reached consensus that it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention," reads a WHO statement

See also: What Life Is Like in a Country Haunted by Ebola

The panel, consisting of 12 participants representing five continents, was convened after two American health-care workers operating in West Africa contracted the virus and were given an experimental "serum," which was never before tested on humans, before they were flown back to the U.S. Liberian officials announced on Monday that the country would soon receive doses of the experimental Ebola drug and give it to two sick doctors there as well — the first non-Westerners to receive the drug. (It's also been given to a Spaniard.) Read more...

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