Somerville MA, Gilmore N; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1989 Jun 4-9; 5: 947 (abstract no. T.F.O.11).
McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
OBJECTIVE: To develop a comprehensive framework within which: ethical issues relating to physicians and HIV/AIDS can be identified, defined and analyzed; relevant general principles and, second, any exceptions to these principles can be articulated; and recommendations indicating ethically responsible professional conduct relating to HIV/AIDS can be formulated. METHODS: The principles adopted in developing this framework include: respect for persons; non-maleficence; beneficence; and justice. The framework has been based upon the presumption that HIV/AIDS should not be treated in isolation from other health and social issues, and that it should identify both the responsibilities and the rights of physicians relating to HIV/AIDS. RESULTS: The ethical issues relating to physicians and HIV/AIDS can be usefully divided into three categories: 1) the generation and recording of information relating to HIV/AIDS; 2) the communication of such information; and 3) the allocation and provision of health services relating to HIV/AIDS. Thus, the framework includes: 1. Generation of information relating to HIV/AIDS: includes issues raised by HIV antibody testing and screening of patients and of physicians, and the secondary generation of information from medical records and other documents; 2. Communication of information relating to HIV/AIDS: includes issues raised by communication to patients (informed consent, notification, and counselling), communication to others (confidentiality, reporting, and contact tracing), communication to health care professionals, and education of physicians and the community; 3. Health care services relating to HIV/AIDS: includes issues of rights to care (resource allocation, access to services, refusal to care or treat, research, and novel therapies), rights in care (standards of care and referral of patients) and specific services (e.g. autologous transfusions). CONCLUSION: Ethical issues relating to HIV/AIDS must be examined within a framework that enables them to be comprehensively and thoroughly analyzed and connected with wider health and social issues. This framework will assist in accomplishing this aim.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Confidentiality
- Counseling
- Ethical Analysis
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Human Rights
- Humans
- Informed Consent
- Physicians
- Resource Allocation
- ethics
Other ID:
UI: 102180965
From Meeting Abstracts