Law Commons^™

Hospitals, Health Care Professionals, And Aids: The "Right To Know" The Health Status Of Professionals And Patients, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article addresses why patients and health care professionals (HCPs) with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) should have autonomy and privacy rights to choose whether to consent to an HIV test and to disclose their serologic status. It also demonstrates that the risk of HIV transmission in health care settings is exceedingly low, that it is probably lower than other well-accepted risks taken by patients and professionals, and that there are other less intrusive ways to further reduce the risk. The article concludes that knowledge of a patient's serologic status is unlikely to reduce risk, since no effective action could be …

The Politics Of Aids: Compulsory State Powers, Public Health, And Civil Liberties, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article argues that compulsory public powers are justified only if they meet the following criteria: there is a significant risk of transmission of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) virus; the public health response is efficacious in preventing a primary mode of transmission of the virus; the economic, practical, or human rights burdens are not disproportionate to the public health benefits; and the public health power is the least restrictive alternative that would prevent viral transmission.

The author carefully examines the levels of risk posed by behavior which can potentially transmit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and demonstrates that compulsory …

Bioethics And Law: The Second Stage – Balancing Intelligent Consent And Individual Autonomy, Judith C. Areen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The principle that government rests on the consent of the governed eventually spread beyond the political arena to alter such private behavior as the relationship between physician and patient. This Article examines the successive transformations of the principle of consent as it has developed in the field of law and bioethics from bare consent to informed consent, and then, more strikingly, to beyond informed consent. This most recent form of the principle may prove to be every bit as revolutionary as the idea of popular sovereignty in 17th century England.