May 15, 1995
Letters to The Editor, San Mateo Times
P.O. Box 5400, San Mateo, CA 94402

Editor:

Aline Roberts wrote a May 12 letter in which we are asked if AIDS victims shouldn't be held "accountable" when they "bring it upon themselves" through unprotected sex or substance abuse. This familiar complaint usually specifically targets the gay population, but the writer failed to answer her own rhetorical question. How might we implement this as a policy?

If this concern was exclusive to persons who have acquired HIV, perhaps we could ask the District Attorney's Office to hold hearings to investigate the sexual and drug practices of applicants for medical services. Rather than merely disowning them, public-spirited parents could "turn in" children suspected of unapproved sexual activity, to make sure they can't cheat the public out of funds earmarked for "approved" causes of disease.

If Ms. Roberts was simply positing that people should be responsible for their own actions, where was the clarion call to hold those "accountable" who suffer disease or disability from obesity, smoking, severe sunburn or careless accident?

AIDS is a serious threat to the entire population. It is only one of many fatal diseases which can best be held in check, in absence of a vaccine, by public education in preventative measures. Typhoid, Lyme's Disease, Hepatitis B and even the frightening Ebola can all be controlled by sanitation or protective measures, but none of this can be done until people are educated to actually take those measures. To single out AIDS victims as a group for punitive purposes would be an unprecedented and horrible travesty of public policy and medical practice. Somehow, I don't think this is what Ms. Roberts had in mind, either, which is why questions like hers beg of a serious answer.

© Alex Forbes , La Parola ONLINE, May 15, 1995