The physician's obligation to treat AIDS patients

Abstract

Medicine's triumph over contagious disease through improved techniques of prevention and treatment in the decades before the appearance of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) left physicians with little impetus to explore their feelings regarding the acceptance of personal risk in the course of patient care. The rapid expansion of the AIDS epidemic, however, has made it essential for every physician and medical student to confront this issue and determine whether he is willing to accept the minimal risks of transmission posed by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to health care workers. This paper will present five arguments in support of the contention that the physician is obligated to treat all those who would benefit from his care, even when such care entails personal risk to himself. These arguments include the historical traditions of the profession, formal ethical codes, the dependent nature of the patient, the social contract, and medicine as a profession.