AIDS: Ethical, Legal, and Public Policy Implications (From The Meaning of AIDS: Implications for Medical Science, Clinical Practice, and Public Health Policy, P 163-173, 1989, Eric T Juengst and Barbara A Koenig, eds. -- NCJ-123590)

• NCJ Number: 123604
• Author(s): P Carrick
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 11 pages
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Given the gravity of the threat of AIDS to public health on the one hand and the need to protect individual freedoms on the other hand, the AIDS dilemma involves a contest between potentially conflicting social and personal values.

Abstract

Of the nine AIDS countermeasures discussed in the chapter, the first four -- firing employees with AIDS, banning infected students, mandatory screening in the military, and the selective screening of employees -- are unwarranted on epidemiological as well as on psychosocial grounds. Another countermeasure -- life and health insurance discrimination aimed at excluding single males from coverage on the presumption they may fall into a primary risk group -- commits the fallacy of reasoning from "some" to "all." Such a policy violates the insurance industry's public duty to provide all clients with the opportunity for sound coverage as determined by a fair, medically informed, and evenly applied actuarial standard. The remaining countermeasures discussed -- closing bath houses, criminal prosecution, quarantine, and prenatal counseling -- are eligible for possible adoption under the harm principle, but not without serious qualification. 31 notes.