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AIDS and International Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Brenda Almond
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Abstract

The pervasiveness and magnitude of AIDS require that it be addressed on an international, global scale. However, the issues of testing for the virus, and controlling its propagation raise questions of civil rights. Brenda Almond examines different countries' policies and ways of attempting to deal with AIDS, focusing on their positions in regard to rights. Almond makes the case that while discrimination should be avoided and fought, that recognition of the primary right, that of life, demands that public health and civil rights be considered in a less oppositional way. Ultimately, however, the possibility of defeating AIDS lies not in law and regulation but in moral education.

Type
Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 2 , March 1988 , pp. 139 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1988

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References

1 London Department of Health and Social Services, AIDS Briefing, January 1988Google Scholar.

2 Clumeck, N., Hermans, P., Taelman, H., Roth, D., Zissis, G., de Wit, S. (St. Pierre University Hospital, Brussels and Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium) “Cluster of Heterosexual Transmission of HIV in Brussels,” poster and oral presentation to IIIrd International Conference on AIDS, Washington, D.C., June 1987Google Scholar.

3 World Health Organization Figures, January 31, 1988Google Scholar.

4 Figures from the Centers for Disease Control, Washington D.C.Google Scholar

5 London Department of Health and Social Services, op. cit.Google Scholar

6 Report in the Independent, London, January 28, 1988Google Scholar.

7 More specifically, the current situation in the United States is that tests are mandatory for: 1) donors of blood, semen, ova, organs, tissues, 2) applicants to and members of the Armed Services, 3) federal prisoners, 4) applicants for immigration, 5) applicants for residential facilities of the Job Corps, and 6) members of the U.S. foreign service and their families (over 12 years of age)Google Scholar.

New guidelines from the Public Health Service, largely endorsed by the American Medical Association, recommend routine testing (i.e. refusal accepted) for IV drug-users; those seeking treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases, ‘people who consider themselves at risk’, women of childbearing age with identifiable risks, people planning marriage, people undergoing medical evaluation or treatment who show certain clinical symptoms, people (in relevant age groups) admitted to the hospital, prisoners in correctional institutions, and prostitutes. The AMA suggests that hospital and medical staff should consider instituting a mandatory program for their hospital if a voluntary policy is ineffective.

8 For a useful discussion of this issue, See Vaid, Urashi, “Prisons” in AIDS and the Law, eds. Dalton, Harlon L., Burris, Scott and The Yale AIDS Law Project (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987) pp. 235–51Google Scholar.

9 The question of insurance companies' policies is, however, more complicated. See Scherzer, Mark “Insurance” in AIDS and the Law, op. cit., pp. 185–200Google Scholar. The two issues of life insurance and medical insurance must be separated. Having a life-threatening medical condition is clearly relevant to the former. As far as the latter is concerned, it is clear that one way or another, the community is bound to meet medical needs, since no individual's resources are likely to be adequate for this condition.

10 Report on tests developed by Abbott, and Du Pont, , in New Scientist (June 11, 1987)Google Scholar. These are antigen tests which detect infection faster than antibody tests and also help predict the course of subsequent disease. Quick five-minute tests are also being developed by Cambridge BioScience of Worcester, MA.

11 Rothstein, Mark A., “Screening Workers for Aids” in AIDS and the Law, op. cit., p. 141Google Scholar.

12 Coxon, A., “Coping with the Threat of Death,” paper delivered to conference on Social and Ethical Perspectives on AIDS at Surrey University, Guildford, U.K., June 7, 1986Google Scholar.

13 Vaid, , op. cit.Google Scholar

14 Bartholomew, C., Cleghorn, Farley, Wilson, V., Mahabir, B., Rook, A.H., Fauci, A.S., “Genetic aspects of AIDS in Trinidad,” in the Abstracts Volume from the IIIrd International Conference on AIDS, Washington D.C., June 1987, p. 78Google Scholar.

15 Eales, Lesley-Jane, Nye, Ke, Parkin, J.M., Weber, J.N., Forster, S.M., Pinching, A.J. et al. , “A Genetic Factor Affecting Susceptibility to HIV Infection and to Disease Progression,”ibid., p. 81Google Scholar.