[DOWNLOAD] "Coercive Policies Do Not Make for Better Health Outcomes (Rebuttal)" by Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

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eBook details

• Title: Coercive Policies Do Not Make for Better Health Outcomes (Rebuttal)
• Author : Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine
• Release Date : January 22, 2008
• Genre: Health & Fitness,Books,Health, Mind & Body,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 196 KB

Description

As it stands, this argument for mandatory newborn testing unnecessarily pits the interest of mother and child against each other and creates conflict where there should be collaboration. Our main concern is that it fails to acknowledge the consequences of the fact that newborn testing amounts to 'proxy testing' of the mother--in this case, without her consent. Not only do the paediatrician's actions violate the mother's right (and indeed legal obligation) to make medical decisions for her minor infant, they also violate her constitutional rights to privacy, reproductive choice and bodily and psychological integrity. (1) The policy change that Chersich and Richter are urging would disempower and undermine women's agency on a number of levels. Further, proxy testing of the mother in this way is a violation of fundamental rights that are now recognised and widely accepted as necessary components of ethical HIV diagnosis and treatment. These include the right to informed consent and not to be tested against one's will. Such rights are enshrined in both national and international policy, guidelines and legislation (2,3) and--perhaps most importantly--the South African HIV & AIDS and STI National Strategic Plan 2007-2011. (4) They are also recognised internationally as good public health practice by WHO and UNAIDS. (5,6) The authors admit that mandatory testing could prompt an 'eroding [of] the right to refuse testing in [other] situations'. Yet they seem reluctant to fully engage with this danger. The acts of testing and administering medication to an infant without its mother's consent are but a small step away from forcing all pregnant women to test for HIV, and if they test positive, to compel them to take nevirapine or AZT before they give birth. Indeed, some bioethicists are already making this argument. (7) But further dangers lurk on this slippery slope. Ignoring the mother's rights and autonomy in the name of acting 'in the best interests of the child' raises the spectre of a much more severe monitoring of pregnant women lest the infant suffer harm (e.g. ensuring that they do not smoke, use alcohol and drugs, or exercise too vigorously). Such 'monitoring' would erode decades of progress made in the field of women's reproductive health and rights. It would also take us back to an earlier era in which women were regarded as little more than conduits for healthy babies.

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