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From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss,net.women
Subject: Re: Anal sex tied to AIDS - journal of the AMA
Message-ID: <492@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 17-Jan-84 22:35:32 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.492
Posted: Tue Jan 17 22:35:32 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jan-84 07:13:02 EST
References: <841@ihuxr.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 37

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I cannot help but feel that there is a subtle "political" component in
the AMA article linking certain sexual practices with laboratory immune
deficiency disorders, and extrapolating that to the AIDS syndrome.  A bit
exaggerated, the argument goes as follows:

	"Subjects who participate in generally-considered-icky sexual
	practices show laboratory evidence of immune response to their
	partner's sperm.  Did someone say 'immune'?  Doesn't AIDS have to
	do with the immune system?  Could it be that people who engage in
	such vile practices might actually be bringing it upon themselves?
	Hear ye, and repent now."

It reminds me a bit of Susan Sontag's expositions of the treatment of
tuberculosis and cancer patients in her book, "Illness as Metaphor".  The
chasm between labortatory-level immune system peculiarities and AIDS is
quite wide, especially given the epidemiological evidence which would seem
to implicate an infectious agent as the cause of AIDS.  We must remember
that the accused practice has been around for many millenia, as opposed to
AIDS, which has emerged only in the last three years.  

A similar study was published a few years ago implicating vasectomies in
auto-immune diseases.  In this case, men were showing symptoms of immune
reactions against their own sperm.  Now the researchers (presumably
themselves intact) weren't saying much about vasectomies and AIDS then, but
they were warning of arthritis and heart disease.  The fears stirred up by
that potboiler are only beginning to be dispelled by hard evidence showing
no increase in either disease in vasectomized men.

I should emphasize that I am not condemning basic research of any kind.
But a study's conclusions and presentations are not immune (sorry) to
deeply-ingrained bias.  Here, I'm trying to point out the ur-message
I see hiding beneath the respectable mantle of an AMA article.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
decvax!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca