NCJ Number
125258
Journal
Maryland Law Review Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Dated: (1989) Pages: 93-211
Date Published
1989
Length
119 pages
Annotation
This article presents the products of a seminar of law students and students from health professional schools at the University of Maryland at Baltimore regarding four major policy issues pertaining to AIDS and health care workers (HCW's).
Abstract
The law students and the health care students were divided into four interdisciplinary work groups to consider the following issues: the rights of HCW's with HIV infection, AIDS testing in health care institutions, confidentiality and the duty to warn, and the obligation to treat. The specific issue considered by one working group was whether a surgeon with HIV should inform patients of his/her condition. The group did not recommend that a legal duty be imposed on the surgeon to disclose the medical condition to patients; however, as part of the informed consent process, the patient should be informed generally of the risks of transmission of HIV during surgery. Another group considered whether or not a State-run testing program should be established. The group endorsed such a program. In considering whether HCW's should have an affirmative duty to warn unsuspecting sexual partners of a patient's HIV infection, the group concluded that there should be no legal duty to warn a third party. A group considering whether there should be a legal duty for HCW's to treat HIV patients opted to support an ethical obligation rather than a legal mandate to treat such a patient. 525 footnotes.