NCJ Number
117178
Journal
Law and Contemporary Problems Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1988) Pages: 315-368
Date Published
1988
Length
54 pages
Annotation
Public policy with respect to the AIDS epidemic should serve three goals: care of the sick, protection of the interests of the infected, and minimization of the number of new infections.
Abstract
Because of the dire consequences of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, efforts should focus on preventing the transmission of the disease. A simple model of AIDS risk factors, points to three areas of intervention and behavioral change: reduction of the frequency of risk contacts, reduction of contact-specific risk, and reduction of the proportion of risky acts involving a mix of HIV positive and negative individuals. All approaches are complicated by AIDS' connection to socially disapproved pleasure-seeking (e.g., prostitution, homosexuality, intravenous drug use). As a consequence, public policy has been caught in a crossfire among moralists, who view vice as wrong and in need of suppression; consequentialists, who see the maintenance of traditional views and norms as necessary to the social well-being; and libertarians who oppose State interference in individual self-rule. The categories of HIV transmission, the range of possible interventions and their consequences, and the likely response to such interventions by these opposing groups are examined in terms of the three areas of intervention and possible barriers to intervention. Interventions include those relating to heterosexual transmission, as well as those focused on specific high-risk groups such as homosexuals, prostitutes and their customers, drug users and their sexual partners, and prison inmates. Among interventions examined are education, screening, quarantine, and more stringent law enforcement. 206 footnotes.