AEGiS-APPJ: AIDS, Testing, and Privacy: An Analysis of Case Histories

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

AIDS, Testing, and Privacy: An Analysis of Case Histories

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 2, no. 3 (Summer-Fall 1987): 21-25
Gary J. Wood and Alice Philipson

The following discussion of confidentiality and the right to privacy in the context of human immunodeficiency virus antibody testing is based on the experience of attorneys serving with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom in San Francisco, California. This panel represents persons with AIDS and AIDS-related complex and persons suspected to be at risk of infection. The Panel's nearly 200 attorneys have represented over 2,000 clients since 1984 in a variety of legal matters ranging from the drafting of estate documents to representation in employment and insurance discrimination matters. Over the past several years, numerous American citizens and institutions have called for increased HIV antibody testing as a first response to the AIDS epidemic. With the exception of a handful of particularly punitive proposals (like California's Proposition 64), these calls stress the need for test result confidentiality for test subjects. It is the conclusion of the instant discussion that, based on the experience of California citizens, anonymity as to test results must be better protected, and therefore, mandatory testing with reported results is anathema to the rights of American citizens and derogatory of attempts to eradicate the AIDS epidemic.
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