Look Back in Anger: Hemophilia, Rights, and AIDS

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Band 44, S. 65-70

Abstract

Compares the political response of hemophiliacs & homosexuals to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). A political movement has arisen among hemophiliacs who claim that drug companies, doctors, & the government failed to adequately warn them that certain medical treatments carried a risk of AIDS acquisition. This movement has demanded legal justice & financial compensation for this failure. It is argued that the response of hemophiliacs to AIDS has encouraged the separation of AIDS victims into "deserving" & "undeserving" groups: those who acquired AIDS through "innocent" means, eg, blood transfusions & other medical work, were seen as deserving of compensation & assistance, while those who acquired AIDS through "immoral" means, eg, gay people & intravenous drug users, were not deserving. It is concluded that this split of AIDS sufferers has led to a divisive identity politics that places the two groups at odds. M. Nichols-Wagner