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The ethics of caring for patients with HIV or AIDS
1American Occupational Therapy Association's Standards and Ethics Commission, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti 48197.
Abstract:
Health care professionals encounter many ethical issues in the care of persons who are HIV positive or who have been diagnosed as having AIDS. Such issues include the allocation of scarce resources for research and health care; the use of various methods of disease control, including mandatory testing, forced isolation, informing of sexual partners, and education; and the determination of the responsibility to treat infected patients. These issues are presented as a stimulus to readers to examine their own attitudes regarding HIV and AIDS. The usefulness and limitations of occupational therapy's professional code in resolving ethical dilemmas are discussed, followed by the description of a process that can be used to analyze and solve these dilemmas.