In this collection of essays, Lawrence O. Gostin, an
internationally recognized scholar of AIDS law and policy,
confronts the most pressing and controversial issues surrounding
AIDS in America and around the world. He shows how HIV/AIDS affects
the entire population--infected and uninfected--by influencing our
social norms, our economy, and our country's role as a world
leader.
Now in the third decade of this pandemic, the nation and the world
still fail to respond to the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS
and continue to tolerate injustice in their treatment, Gostin
argues. AIDS, both in the United States and globally, deeply
affects poor and marginalized populations, and many U.S. policies
are based on conservative moral values rather than public health
and social justice concerns.
Gostin tackles the hard social, legal, political, and ethical
issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: privacy and discrimination, travel
and immigration, clinical trials and drug pricing, exclusion of
HIV-infected health care workers, testing and treatment of pregnant
women and infants, and needle-exchange programs. This book provides
an inside account of AIDS policy debates together with incisive
commentary. It is indispensable reading for advocates, scholars,
health professionals, lawyers, and the concerned public.