The AIDS Pandemic: Complacency, Injustice, and Unfulfilled Expectations (Studies in Social Medicine)

In this collection of essays, Lawrence O. Gostin, an internationally recognized scholar of AIDS law and policy, confronts the most pressing and controversial issues surrounding AIDS in America and around the world. He shows how HIV/AIDS affects the entire population--infected and uninfected--by influencing our social norms, our economy, and our country's role as a world leader. Now in the third decade of this pandemic, the nation and the world still fail to respond to the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS and continue to tolerate injustice in their treatment, Gostin argues. AIDS, both in the United States and globally, deeply affects poor and marginalized populations, and many U.S. policies are based on conservative moral values rather than public health and social justice concerns. Gostin tackles the hard social, legal, political, and ethical issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: privacy and discrimination, travel and immigration, clinical trials and drug pricing, exclusion of HIV-infected health care workers, testing and treatment of pregnant women and infants, and needle-exchange programs. This book provides an inside account of AIDS policy debates together with incisive commentary. It is indispensable reading for advocates, scholars, health professionals, lawyers, and the concerned public. Doody Review Services Reviewer: Mark D. Goodman, MD(Creighton University Medical Center) Description: This is a collection of well written essays exploring the legal, social, and political ramifications of HIV/AIDS. Purpose: The purpose is to explore the role of law and policy for those living with HIV/AIDS, and for the communities dealing with this epidemic. These worthy objectives are met. In his preface, Professor Gostin attempts to show how HIV/AIDS affects the entire population, "by influencing our social norms, our economy and our country's role as a world leader. Audience: The book is written for "advocates, lawyers, health professionals, scholars and the concerned public," as stated in the opening. The author is a noted AIDS activist, governmental advisor scholar, and scientist, and brings tremendous credibility to the book. Features: The book is divided into five major sections dealing with AIDS in the courtroom; rights and dignity; policy, politics and ethics; special populations; and AIDS in the world. Numerous illustrations, as well as tables and maps, are scattered throughout the chapters. The book is especially to be celebrated for its regard for the rights of patients as individuals. It provides an interesting and refreshing alternative to many books on this subject, which tend to favor public health measures over private rights. A thorough review of the current state of the law follows, including such subjects as blood donors/banking, partner notification, HIV-specific criminal statutes, and perinatal testing to name a few. The subject is enormous, but Professor Gostin does an excellent job of corralling the information and presenting it in an instructive and comprehensive way. Assessment: This book is of the highest quality, and of a much more humanistic tone than others in the field. In this collection of essays, Lawrence O. Gostin, an internationally recognized scholar of AIDS law and policy, confronts the most pressing and controversial issues surrounding AIDS in America and around the world. He shows how HIV/AIDS affects the entire population -- infected and uninfected -- by influencing our social norms, our economy, and our country's role as a world leader. Gostin blends his own legal scholarship with social commentary on AIDS policy, politics, and law. He gauges the national and international responses to the pandemic from its origins in 1981 through an initial phase of public denial and then a phase of intense awareness and mobilization. We are now in a third phase, he asserts, which is marked by complacency, injustice, and unfulfilled expectations.In the third decade of this pandemic, Gostin argues, the nation and the world still fail to respond to the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS and continue to tolerate injustice in their treatment. AIDS, both in the United States and globally, deeply affects poor and marginalized populations, and many U.S. policies are based on conservative moral values rather than public health and social justice concerns. Gostin tackles the hard social, legal, political, and ethical issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: privacy and discrimination, travel and immigration, clinical trials and drug pricing, exclusion of HIV-infected health care workers, testing and treatment of pregnant women and infants, and needle-exchange programs. This book provides an inside account of AIDS policy debates together with incisive analysis. Indispensable reading for advocates, scholars, health professionals, lawyers, and the concerned public, The AIDS Pandemic will serve as a foundation and launching pad for future discourse and advocacy related to HIV/AIDS. In this collection of essays, Lawrence O. Gostin, an internationally recognized scholar of AIDS law and policy, confronts the most pressing and controversial issues surrounding AIDS in America and around the world. He shows how HIV/AIDS affects the entire population--infected and uninfected--by influencing our social norms, our economy, and our country's role as a world leader.

Now in the third decade of this pandemic, the nation and the world still fail to respond to the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS and continue to tolerate injustice in their treatment, Gostin argues. AIDS, both in the United States and globally, deeply affects poor and marginalized populations, and many U.S. policies are based on conservative moral values rather than public health and social justice concerns.

Gostin tackles the hard social, legal, political, and ethical issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: privacy and discrimination, travel and immigration, clinical trials and drug pricing, exclusion of HIV-infected health care workers, testing and treatment of pregnant women and infants, and needle-exchange programs. This book provides an inside account of AIDS policy debates together with incisive commentary. It is indispensable reading for advocates, scholars, health professionals, lawyers, and the concerned public.

AIDS policy, politics, and law in context The AIDS litigation project: the social impact of AIDS The AIDS litigation project: privacy, discrimination, and vulnerable persons Human rights and public health in the HIV/AIDS pandemic Health informational privacy in the HIV/AIDS epidemic Stigma, social risk, and discrimination Testing and screening in the HIV/AIDS epidemic: a public health and human rights approach National HIV/AIDS reporting Piercing the veil of secrecy: partner notification, the right to know, and the duty to warn The politics of AIDS: compulsory state powers, public health, and civil liberties Testing, counseling, and treatment after sexual assault Rights and duties of health care workers living with HIV/AIDS Perinatal transmission of HIV: controversies in screening and policy The interconnected epidemics of AIDS and drug dependency Screening and exclusion of travelers and immigrants The global reach of HIV/AIDS: science, politics, economics, and research AIDS policy, politics, and law: reflections on the pandemic. Cover 1 Contents 2 Foreword 3 Preface 4 Abbreviations 5 Part 1. AIDS in the Courtroom: AIDS Policy, Politics, and Law in Context 6 Part 2.- The AIDS Litigation Project: The Social Impact of AIDS 32 Part 3.- The AIDS Litigation Project: Privacy, Discrimination, and Vulnerable Persons 46 Part 4.- Human Rights and Public Health in the HIV/AIDS Pandemic 66 Part 5.- Health Informational Privacy in the HIV/AIDS Epidemic 94 Part 6.- Stigma, Social Risk, and Discrimination 114 Notes 332 Index of Cases 436 General Index 438