Abstract

The global HIV/AIDS epidemic killed 3 million people in 2004 and 40 million are infected, from which more than 90% in developing countries. High prevalence of HIV in some African populations creates conditions for a strong natural selection on genetic variants that were associated with resistance to the infection by HIV-1. Care must be taken with the transmission of this important scientific knowledge to society. Despite the absolute immorality of natural selection, occasionally it has been faced as a “natural law”and even “morally adequate” for some human behaviors. The survival of the populations depending on natural selection presents important ethical repercussion and reveals not only biological differences but also profound iniquities among human beings