Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network

Rapid HIV Screening at the Point of Care: Legal and Ethical Questions

This report discusses whether rapid HIV screening tests should be used by health care professionals. The authors maintain that rapid testing on pregnant women who are unaware of their HIV status at the time of labour, should be delayed until there is further research. They argue that while rapid testing would allow mothers to take preventative measures to reduce mother to child transmission during birth, it also raises concerns of higher chances of 0 positives, inadequate counselling, screening without the mother's consent, and lower protection of confidentiality.

Geneva98: Law, Ethics and Human Rights

This special edition newsletter reproduces nine of the presentations made at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva (1998). The presentations discuss legal, ethical and human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS. Several of the presentations discuss the need for a human rights framework in order to understand the underlying causes of women's vulnerability to contracting HIV/AIDS. Other presentations call for a more assertive activist community, and express dismay at the reduction of funds for prevention and care programs. Finally, some presentations focus on specific case studies.

Women

This section of the online discussion paper "HIV/AIDS and Discrimination" introduces the subject of Canadian women and discrimination against them associated with HIV/AIDS. It discusses women's vulnerability to HIV infection, focusing on gender inequalities and violence against women. With respect to HIV testing and counselling, the author notes that women face difficulty as they are not viewed as a high-risk category, they are often discriminated against by race or ethnic origin, and physicians tend to restrict testing to pregnant women.