HIV/AIDS Ethics

Paper Summary:

The paper notes that caring for persons with HIV/AIDS has become a fundamental feature of all health care professions, due to the staggering rates of infection worldwide. The paper explains that becoming aware of the numerous nuances in ethical reasoning can help guide a health care professional's decisions in providing optimal care for patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The paper discusses how preserving patient confidentiality and minimizing medical paternalism have become keys to providing ethical treatment for all patients. Yet, the paper points out that health care workers may have to break the patient's confidentiality in order to preserve public health, one of the key responsibilities of the health care professional.

From the Paper:

"Patient autonomy is a central issue in health care in general. Preserving patient confidentiality and minimizing medical paternalism have become keys to providing ethical treatment for all patients. Patients with HIV/AIDS deserve similar ethical treatment and are entitled by law and by hospital regulations to a reasonable assumption of both autonomy and confidentiality. Decisions regarding courses of treatment, for example, should be made by the patient except in extreme cases in which patient consciousness has been compromised. Similarly, patients with HIV/AIDS assume the preservation of confidentiality. Ethical dilemmas regarding confidentiality and patient autonomy can easily arise when health care professionals suspect that a patient with HIV/AIDS is not taking adequate precautions to prevent the transmission of the illness."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Johnston, Carolyn and Slowther, Anne. "Patient Information and Confidentiality." UK Clinical Ethics Network. Sept 2003. Retrieved Sept 15, 2006 from http://www.ethox.org.uk/Ethics/econfidential.htm http://www.ethox.org.uk/Ethics/econfidential.htm
• Hamblin, Julie. "People Living with HIV: The Law, Ethics, and Discrimination." UNDP Issue Paper No. 4. Retrieved Sept 15, 2006 from http://www.undp.org/hiv/publications/issues/english/issue04e.htm
• Ruddick, William. "Medical Ethics." Encyclopedia of Ethics. Lawrence and Charlotte Becker, Eds. 2nd edition. Garland, 1998. Retrieved Sept 15, 2006 from http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/ruddick/papers/medethics.html

More papers on HIV/AIDS Ethics:

• Analytical Essay # 126742 : "HIV/AIDS and Elders of Color"
• Research Paper # 26371 : "HIV-AIDS Patients and the Health Care System"
• Case Study # 91287 : "AIDS "

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