A REPORT FROM CHINA - AIDS, POLICY AND BIOETHICS - ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACING CHINA IN HIV PREVENTION

Authors
Citation
Yg. Wang, A REPORT FROM CHINA - AIDS, POLICY AND BIOETHICS - ETHICAL DILEMMAS FACING CHINA IN HIV PREVENTION, Bioethics, 11(3-4), 1997, pp. 323-327
Citations number
2
Categorie Soggetti
Medicine, Legal
Journal title
ISSN journal
02699702
Volume
11
Issue
3-4
Year of publication
1997
Pages
323 - 327
Database
ISI
SICI code
0269-9702(1997)11:3-4<323:ARFC-A>2.0.ZU;2-0
Abstract
The present situation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is very grin in China. The probability of China becoming a country with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS cannot be excluded because there have been factors which prom ote the wide spread of HIV if we fail to take timely action to prevent it al the opportune moment. However, China's HIV prevention policy is inadequate. Health professionals and programmers believed that they c ould take a conventional public health approach to cope with the HIV e pidemic. They simply ignored the fact that HIV infection is an epidemi c so special that their approach is not effective to deter the epidemi c. Many health professionals and programmers bypassed ethical issues t hat had emerged in the prevention of the HIV epidemic. Even some healt h educators, sexologists and officials believe that 'AIDS is the punis hment for promiscuity', and this belief has led to discrimination and stigmatization of AIDS patients, HIV positive people, their family mem bers and high risk groups. Although homosexuality is not illegal, the police can always find any reason to detain homosexuals. A difficult e thical issue is about the laws prohibiting prostitution and drug Else in China which force prostitutes and intravenous drug users undergroun d, giving them no chance to access information, education and the serv ices needed to protect them. The dilemma facing China is whether to st ay with a restrictive policy for the reason of ideology cleansing or t o turn to a more supportive policy. It is necessary to have some chang e in the ethical framework to evaluate the action in HIV prevention. T olerance should be the first ethical principle.