AEGiS-APPJ: The Politics of AIDS Testing

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

The Politics of AIDS Testing

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 2, no. 4 (Fall-Winter 1987): 35-49
Gary J. Wood

Under the guise of a war against AIDS, American politics have recently become enamored of an argument over testing citizens for the antibody to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). After sorting through the sordid politics of this issue and reviewing the experience of those people considered at risk of exposure to the virus, American health and social policy should favor voluntary, anonymous testing along with individual counseling and broad public education, and should keep mandatory testing and antibody-positive identification to a minimum. The conservative argument here is simply too naive, too expensive, and too invasive of both the privacy of American citizens and the responsibility they must take for their own lives.
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