GlobalMed Technologies is suing the Ministry of Public Health and the National Council on Bioethics over the closure of their experimental procedures in their search for a cure for AIDS and HIV. Judge Marilyn Musa Valerio chose to wait until both sides had presented the documents to support their cases. Dr Danilo Fernandez, the chief of GlobalMed, brought the matter to court because the Bioethics Council said his facility would remain closed “until an exhaustive investigation into the legal and ethical norms being employed could be fulfilled.” GlobalMed told the court that the two governmental entities are not legally entitled to suspend research, and the 36 patients who are being treated could die as a result, given that they are not insured and of little financial means. According to the GlobalMed spokesperson, the reason they are in the DR is because 99% of the Dominican AIDS/HIV+ patients are without medication. “It is not because they do not want to give them medicines, it is just that there are none to give,” said Dr Fernandez. The experimental team worked from the Betances Medical Center, but they were told that they could no longer continue to use those premises. GlobalMed threatened to take the case to court and the clinic reported them to the authorities.
The issue of experimenting with radiation treatment of the blood using ultraviolet light is no stranger to controversy. Brought to the Dominican Republic by Dr Fernandez, a Cuban-American who trained at the UCE Medical School, the ultraviolet treatment was subject to scrutiny by the Bioethics Council, which, incidentally, is headed by Aura Celeste Fernandez, one of the DR’s most gifted and respected jurists. The council requested a series of conditions that were ignored, according to its report to the Ministry of Public Health. Last April, however, Minister Jose Rodriguez Soldevila authorized the experimental treatments to begin, which decision brought about a conflict with the Bioethics Council. After meeting with the council members, the minister admitted he had made a mistake. Nonetheless, Rodriguez Soldevila fired the entire staff of the ethics council and replaced them with people who supported his actions.