Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!ucla-cs!C94882SM%WUVMD.BITNET@oac.ucla.edu
From: C94882SM%WUVMD.BITNET@oac.ucla.edu (Steve Middlebrook)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: (1488) PUBLIC HEALTH
Message-ID: <29424@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 21 Nov 89 22:10:59 GMT
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Organization: Washington University-Educational Computing Services
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Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu
Archive-number: 1507

On Sat, 18 Nov 89 06:00:58 pst Darrell Angleton said
>I find it very interesting that AIDS is the first disease to aquire civil
>rights.And I remember when these types of afflictions were dealt with a HEALTH
>PROBLEMS, not social causes.
>Realistic in NJ

Sorry, but I think you have a lot to learn about AIDS, public health and
civil rights.

First, only people have rights.  Neither a virus or it's manifestations within
a human body has rights.

Second, no person acquires civil rights.  In our system, all people are assumed
to have them.  The civil rights movement is not and never has been about
acquiring rights.  It's about maintaining them and seeking remedies when
people's rights have been violated.

Rights are not absolutes.  They are often contravened by the rights of others
or by the interests of government.  Much of what the legislative and judicial
branches of government do is set limits on our rights.  My right to walk
where I want is limited by your right to own property.  My right to build a
house is limited by a compelling state interest to control land use.

A lot of the "controversy" that is being played out today has to do with
the fact that some people think having AIDS, being HIV positive, or the
appearance or probability of being HIV positive warrants the restiction of
an individual's civil rights.  Please note that this controversy was not
started by PWAs who wanted to keep their jobs or their homes or go to school,
but rather was created by other people who wanted to prevent them from doing
these things.  The furor is not about giving PWAs and others touched by HIV
new civil rights, its about letting them keep they ones they (supposedly)
already have.  I qualified my last sentence with the word "supposedly" because
so many of the people affected by HIV are gay, black or poor and are already
struggling to maintain their rights.

AIDS is certainly not the first health issue to masquerade as a social
issue. (Or should that read "first social issue to masquerade as a health
issue??)  There's everything from abortion to water fluoridation to serve
as precedent.

Sorry, friend, but the reality is that the lives of a large number of people
are governed by fear, ignorance and hatred.  When these people try to extend
that governance to the lives of others, we must act to prevent them.  Thus
AIDS becomes a social issue.

Stephen T. Middlebrook