Physicians' disclosure of their HIV status : private fact versus duty to inform : a law analysis

Disclosure of a health care providers HIV status continues to be a major point of contention. Because aids now is viewed as a death sentence, it presents unique medical and social dilemmas. in an attempt to put the controversy over HIV-status disclosure by health care providers in some perspective, the primary focus of this study will be to examine a number of significant reported court decisions on the legal responsibility of health care workers to reveal their HIV status to their patients. Thus, this study is an interpretative examination of responses by some courts to a significant medical, ethical and social policy issue facing the health care industry and the legal community in the 1990s. As a result, this thesis-in significant part-is about a constitutional right of privacy, illustrating how the explosion of the AIDS virus is causing an evolution in privacy law and, ultimately, in public policy. Lessons drawn from these cases will be used by the author as a professional in healthcare administration to suggest-tentatively-how a hospital might protect itself and the rights of its patients and health care providers.