NCJ Number
111292
Date Published
1987
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) position on the proposals for compulsory testing of various segments of the population for AIDS.
Abstract
The ACLU supports widely available voluntary testing programs, coupled with adequate counseling and the assurance of anonymity or, if that is not possible, strict protections of confidentiality. The ACLU opposes tests for the AIDS virus which are forcibly imposed; it demands that stringent new laws be enacted to protect the confidentiality of AIDS-related medical records and to prohibit discrimination based on test results or AIDS-related conditions or sexual orientation. The existence of error rates in antibody tests, for positivity and negativity, exacerbate the threats to civil rights and civil liberties which would result if testing were widespread and compulsory. The more information about identified persons which the government seeks to collect liberties. Testing of marriage license applicants would identify few and miss many of those who are infected. Testing hospital admissions, regardless of clinical indications, would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for little return. Requiring testing in government-funded clinics would drive away millions of people who are at risk for HIV infection. The most effective response to AIDS, short of developing a cure and a vaccine, is education and prevention. 39 footnotes.