NCJ Number
112783
Editor(s)
C Pierce,
D Vandeveer
Date Published
1988
Length
241 pages
Annotation
This collection addresses what restrictions on liberty are justifiable with respect to AIDS victims and carriers of the virus in order to slow or halt the spread of this potentially lethal virus.
Abstract
The first group of papers surveys factual questions about AIDS, such as its causes and transmission. Leading moral grounds purporting to justify restrictions on liberty are identified and discussed. Subsequent articles explore specific public policies or legislative proposals for dealing with aspects of the AIDS crisis. Special attention is given to mandatory testing and the issues it raises regarding privacy, use of test data, job discrimination, and health care insurance. The widespread tendency to associate AIDS with sexually immoral behavior is examined. The book includes the Supreme Court's 1986 ruling in Bowers v. Harkwick is included since it, by upholding a Georgia statute criminalizing consensual sodomy among homosexuals, provided implicit justification for the view that it is all right to restrict coercively those whose behavior is nonconventional. Footnotes, glossary, and bibliography. For individual paper, see NCJ-112784.