HIV and AIDS, Testing, Screening, and Confidentiality (Hardcover)

The late-20th century has witnessed dramatic technological developments in biomedical science and the delivery of health care, and these developments have brought with them important social changes. All too often ethical analysis has lagged behind these changes. The purpose of the "Issues in Biomedical Ethics" series is to provide lively, up-to-date, and authoritative studies for the increasingly large and diverse readership concerned with issues in biomedical ethics - not just health care trainees and professionals, but also social scientists, philosophers, lawyers, social workers and legislators. The focus of this volume is the testing and screening for HIV and AIDS which gives rise to ethical, legal and social issues of the most controversial and delicate kind. An international team of 18 doctors, philosophers and lawyers present a fresh and thorough discussion of these issues; they aim to show the way to practical advances but also to give an accessible guide to the debates for readers new to them. The contributors pay particular attention to the sensitive nature of the information yielded by a test for HIV antibody. They consider such questions as these: Are we under an obliga