Тема - Aids Hysteria

Aids Hysteria

There are limits to what the law can and should do in response to AIDS. Today intelligent people assume that when society has a problem? All it needs do is make a new law and the problem will be sold.

If we look back in history at the laws which were introduced to cope with earlier epidemics we can clearly see that there is a problem. Not only were the laws often terribly cruel, but generally ineffective. In Italy in 14^th centure there were laws that included using force to remove people who were infected , making plague barriers, using fires to purify public places and was often an excuse to attack and persecute immigrants. Over the centuries, spying, imprisonment and taking away civil rights have been introduced by various means to prevent diseases spreading.

In this age of computer science and biotechnology we must realize that laws have a limited effect as a response to AIDS and that laws will only effective if they are built upon good information concerning AIDS and how it is transmitted. We must also recognize the negative effects of some laws-for example those that limit the supplies of condoms or the availability of sterile needles for drug users.

Surely, the target of laws and policies should be the behavior that spreads the diseas and not the individual with the disease. Laws which focus on individuals or groups in society can be unjust, unfair and discriminating.

Bringing in laws about AIDS may make some people feel better, but such laws will make very little difference in controlling epidemics. At this point in time, control of this disease must depend on education. This is where the solution must lie, in educating communities, risk groups and every individual.