Would an AIDS cure really be beneficial on a global level?

[bisonbison]

Yeah fuckface, maybe someone would live and they would save your life in the future.

A cure for you is what is oh so desperately needed

Way to register a gimmick account and then reply to the wrong guy.

[Ulysses]

In the same vein, would the following be more good or bad?

A low-cost (essentially free) solution that could convert any water source into clean drinkable water that also provided vaccination against all the common childhood diseases.

[banditbdl]

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What I find strange is that there are so many posters here who think that an AIDS cure would be such a great thing that it's ludicrous to even suggest that there may also be very real consequences to it.

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Yeah, sure there are consequences to an AIDS cure. However, the only ludicrous that should be discussed here is the idea that any of these negative consequences are anywhere remotely close to competing with the positive consequence of saving millions and millions of people from death and years of medical suffering. Not to mention, that many of these people will have family etc. that will greatly benefit from their not being freaking dead.

Screw the finances of some condom companies or drug companies, they can find a way to make some more money elsewhere.

Finally, I seriously doubt an AIDS cure would have a significant effect on the amount of protected/unprotected sex people are having. People like to screw, plain and simple and they will screw when they feel like it. Fear of AIDS isn't realistically stopping hardly anyone from having sex when they want to have sex.

You have every right to point out that an AIDS cure will have some negative consequences, but by pointing this out it implicitly states that you believe these consequences may actually have a real chance of outweighing the benefits of saving the lives of tens of millions of people. Which is in a word, Ludicrous.

[gumpzilla]

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A low-cost (essentially free) solution that could convert any water source into clean drinkable water that also provided vaccination against all the common childhood diseases.

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My quick answer is that while the likely result of a population boom in developing countries through the introduction of such a solution would introduce a host of new problems, it would still be a good thing to have such a product available. It is conceivable that overpopulation issues can be addressed in other ways, or even that the pressures introduced by overpopulation can eventually be abated, and it seems good to act now to make positive change. Interesting question, though.

[pc in NM]

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Imagine an AIDS cure were found tomorrow. Here's a list of what I think some of the repercussions would be, which I think would be visible in just a few months:

-Spread of other STDs, since people I think would be less cautious.
-Increase in pregnancies, for the same reason.
-Condom manufacturers would be hurt financially.

But now that I think about it, I'm not sure if sexual activity would really increase in any significant amount. I guess what I'm asking is, would the positives outweigh these (and other) possible negatives?

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Just to quantify what would occur on the "positive" side of the ledger:

AIDS Around The World

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Already, more than twenty million people around the world have died of AIDS-related diseases. In 2004, 3.1 million men, women and children have died. Around twice the amount who have died until now - almost 40 million - are now living with HIV, and most of these are likely to die over the next decade or so. The most recent UNAIDS/WHO estimates show that, in 2004 alone, 4.9 million people were newly infected with HIV.

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That's just the number of lives that would be saved. In addition, the economies of several nations in Africa are threatened as people die, and the epidemic continues to spread in Southeast Aisa, the Indian Subcontinent and the Carribean....