Field MA; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1992 Jul 19-24; 8: D456 (abstract no. PoD 5414).
Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Even those who reject mandatory testing in most circumstances often favor it for pregnant women in general or for some subset of pregnant women. Even if pregnancy does not lead to mandatory testing, the newborn may be tested at birth--a test that reveals whether the mother is HIV positive. Some would go further and impose controls on women they know to have AIDS. For example, they would favor sterilization and abortion for AIDS-infected women or government encouragement of Norplant. How should one distinguish between encouragement and coercion, and is coercion permissible? I will review the law and the legal issues surrounding the particular intersection of pregnancy and AIDS and analyze, from an ethical and legal perspective, how the issues ought to be resolved. In general, I conclude that pregnancy should not serve as the occasion for coercion of persons who have AIDS and that AIDS should not serve as the occasion for coercion of women who are pregnant or may become pregnant.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Coercion
- Female
- HIV Seropositivity
- Humans
- Infant, Newborn
- Legislation
- Mandatory Testing
- Mothers
- Pregnancy
- Pregnancy Complications, Infectious
- Pregnancy Outcome
- Pregnancy, Unwanted
- Pregnant Women
Other ID:
UI: 102200625
From Meeting Abstracts