This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Correction  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Legislative and Regulatory Policy in the United States

Larry O. Gostin, JD

JAMA. 1989;261(11):1621-1630.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic poses a serious threat to public health, but its impact goes far beyond health. The burden of disease falls predominantly on disfavored populations—intravenous drug users, homosexuals, and prostitutes. Moreover, racial minorities are disproportionately represented in these groups.^1,2

Many argue that governmental and public health officials have failed to implement strong measures in deference to the civil liberties of high-risk groups.³ Others argue that society has overreacted to the epidemic and imposed penalties and discriminatory treatment that would never have occurred if the primary targets of intervention were more popular.⁴ Not surprisingly, these two contradictory viewpoints are espoused by groups at opposite ends of the political spectrum. A deeper dimension of the AIDS epidemic, then, is political, and it is manifested in legislation.

The volume and content of state AIDS legislation has increased considerably since earlier reports.^5,6 Legislation related to AIDS . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the American Society of Law and Medicine and the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass.

Footnotes
Reprints requests to American Society of Law and Medicine, Suite 1600, 765 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215 (Mr Gostin).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?