Analysis, For and Against: Mandatory AIDS Testing

One of the more controversial medical topics of recent years is that of mandatory testing for AIDS. While AIDS testing has been described in some quarters as "an essential component of any effective national AIDS policy" (Basten, 1989), mandatory testing for AIDS is being met with derision in other quarters, being labeled "public health lunacy" (Adams, 2005). On the one hand, proponents of mandatory AIDS testing argue that such testing protects sexual partners, coworkers, friends, family, fellow inmates, and others that an HIV- or AIDS-infected individual might come into contact with, as well as providing an opportunity for early intervention to protect AIDS patients' health. On the other hand, mandatory testing could result in catastrophic privacy invasion that ruins careers and marriages based on what is still an imperfect testing medium that yields a substantial number of false positive results. This paper will examine the arguments on both sides of the issue, perform an analysis of the arguments and the evidence, and choose to support one of the perspectives on mandatory AIDS testing.

Arguments in Favor of Mandatory AIDS Testing

AIDS is widely regarded as a fatal disease. For most people, a diagnosis of AIDS has come to mean the equivalent of a death sentence-not a rapid and uneventful death, as with a heart attack, but a long, slow, debilitating death punctuated by years of suffering, loss of faculties, and the very real ri

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t "Until treatment was available, mandatory testing and ((sexual)) contact tracing did nothing to stem the spread of syphilis" (Wilentz, 1987). In point of fact, 21-year-old homosexual psychology student David Souleles "acknowledges the possibility that he may have become infected with the virus through previous sexual contact" but now practices "safe sex" and says, "the information that I'll receive from the test is not going to help me become more safe" (Wilentz, 1987). Souleles states, "If I find out I'm positive, there's nothing I can do about it anyway. It's kind of pointless" (Wilentz, 1987). This is apparently the view of many of the people who do go in to be tested. An examination of statewide HIV counseling records culled from the University of California and the California State Office of AIDS found that of the 101,000 records reviewed, "More than a quarter of 68,000 clients who were given a conventional HIV test did not return for test results" ("Rapid HIV test found highly effective," 2006). The ineffectiveness of mandatory testing extends to the health of the nation at large, as well. Asked whether "the greater good of society" calls for "some form of mass testing," Dr. Mervyn Silverman, preside

Category: Medical - M