When asked “Have you no morals?” Alfred Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion answered: “Can’t afford them governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me.” The modern concept of human rights underpins a moral society and holds governments responsible for fulfilling these rights. From informed consent to the right to privacy civil and political rights have dominated the human rights focus of the HIV-1 epidemic. Yet the economic and social rights of people with HIV-1 infection in particular the rights to health care and to share in scientific advances are glaringly disparate between rich and poor countries. This disparity has become the focus of debate in transnational HIV-1 vaccine research. (excerpt)