Legal Responses to HIV and AIDS

(Paperback)

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Since the 1980s legislators and courts have responded in a variety of ways to the onset of the AIDS pandemic. Some responses have been sensitive to the needs of those with HIV, seeking to guarantee heightened levels of confidentiality or freedom from discrimination. Others have sought to use the law as a tool to limit the spread of HIV, for example by imposing liability for its transmission or restricting the freedoms of those who are HIV-positive. Elsewhere, doctors and researchers have grappled with the legal and ethical problems surrounding testing for a condition which many people may not want to be aware of, and with the conflicts which can arise between respect for individual autonomy and the promotion of public health. More recently, treatments for HIV have developed to the extent that for many HIV is a chronic disease rather than an inevitably fatal condition. Such treatments, however, pose new challenges: they are expensive and as such are not widely available in those parts of the globe where HIV infection is most widespread. This has caused tensions over issues such as asylum, immigration and deportation, and the protection of intellectual property rights which may bar such treatments from being available where the need is most acute. This book examines and evaluate these issues in comparative perspective. It draws on legal responses to other sexually transmitted infections (and contagious diseases) but concentrates on HIV and AIDS.

Reviews

...a book such as this is important, addressing legal issues in the United Kingdom and the ethical questions at stake -- Michael J. Bosia * Law & Politics Book Review, Vol.19, No.7 *
This relatively short text ... offers an overview of the UK-wide legal approach to HIV/AIDS and does so in such a way to make the material not only of use to a UK audience, but also to a wider international readership ... it also goes some way towards being a short, introductory textbook. In summary, Chalmer's book is a clear, solid text in an area of legal scholarship in need of just such a contribution. To that extent, it is certain to be a welcome addition. -- Chris Ashford * SCOLAG Legal Journal *
Legal Reponses to HIV and AIDS is a long overdue and much welcome addition to the relatively scarce academic writing in this controversial, and often morally charged, area of law. Legal Reponses is an illuminating addition to the current academic literature on the criminal law and sexually transmitted infections, posing as many questions as it answers ... Given the complexity of the legal, moral and ethical issues involved in this important area of public policy, Legal Reponses is a useful reference tool for academics, legal practitioners and medical professionals alike, providing a much-needed and accessible overview of the current legal responses to HIV and AIDS. * Legal Studies, Volume 30, No 2 *

Author Bio

James Chalmers is a senior lecturer in law at the University of Edinburgh. He is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and Tulane University, in New Orleans.