The Lancet
Jun 27, 2009   Volume 373  Number 9682  Pages 2171 – 2258
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Is disease eradication ethical?
Arthur L Caplan

Preview
For many in the field of public health, the eradication of smallpox was one of the greatest triumphs of 20th-century medicine. This astounding achievement has influenced national and international organisations to mount or consider efforts to eradicate many other infectious diseases, including measles, Guinea worm disease, Chagas’ disease, polio, and malaria. Eradication may well be public health’s greatest rhetorical weapon in the battle against dread diseases. Indeed, the ability to command funding, popular support, the attention of politicians, and positive media coverage by talk of disease eradication is unparalleled.