AEGiS-APPJ: AIDS Prevention and Civil Liberties: The False Security of Mandatory Testing

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1987. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Prevention and Civil Liberties: The False Security of Mandatory Testing

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 2, no. 3 (Summer-Fall 1987): 1-10
Nan D. Hunter

The ACLU supports widely available, voluntary testing programs, coupled with adequate counseling and the assurance of anonymity or, if that is not possible, strict protections of confidentiality. The ACLU opposes tests for the AIDS virus that are forcibly imposed. Indeed, for each proposal for enforced testing under discussion, the ACLU believes that the less-coercive policy of voluntary testing would work as well or better. In some situations, civil liberties defects aside, mandatory testing seems destined to be counterproductive, irrationally wasteful of public funds, or both. Most urgently, the ACLU demands that stringent new laws be enacted to protect the confidentiality of AIDS-related medical records and to prohibit discrimination based on test results. AIDS-related conditions, or sexual orientation. Without these laws in place, public health efforts, which are premised on securing the cooperation of persons affected by this disease, are doomed. Additionally, federal and state governments must not be allowed to hide behind a smokescreen of debate on testing--a strategy of, at best, limited effectiveness--while abdicating their responsibility to educate and counsel all Americans on how to protect themselves and others from this disease.
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