The AIDS Pandemic - (Studies in Social Medicine) by Lawrence O Gostin (Paperback)

About the Book

AIDS Pandemic: Complacency, Injustice, and Unfulfilled Expectations

Book Synopsis

In this collection of essays, Lawrence O. Gostin, an internationally recognized scholar of AIDS law and policy, confronts the most pressing and controversial issues surrounding AIDS in America and around the world. He shows how HIV/AIDS affects the entire population -- infected and uninfected -- by influencing our social norms, our economy, and our country's role as a world leader.

Now in the third decade of this pandemic, the nation and the world still fail to respond to the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS and continue to tolerate injustice in their treatment, Gostin argues. AIDS, both in the United States and globally, deeply affects poor and marginalized populations, and many U.S. policies are based on conservative moral values rather than public health and social justice concerns.

Gostin tackles the hard social, legal, political, and ethical issues of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: privacy and discrimination, travel and immigration, clinical trials and drug pricing, exclusion of HIV-infected health care workers, testing and treatment of pregnant women and infants, and needle-exchange programs. This book provides an inside account of AIDS policy debates together with incisive commentary. It is indispensable reading for advocates, scholars, health professionals, lawyers, and the concerned public.

Review Quotes

"[The AIDS Pandemic brings] together [Gostin's] many essays in an effort to understand past failures and future possibilities." -- The Nation

"[A] comprehensive and informative text. . . . This is an excellent resource for anyone working with or concerned about HIV and AIDS." -- CHOICE

"A comprehensive review of the social, ethical, political, and legal debates surrounding the AIDS pandemic. . . . Well organized. . . . Covers a wide range of topics. . . . Easy reading. . . . The author writes from the perspective of an insider intimately involved with the creation and evolution of AIDS policies. . . . Gostin's public policy arguments are evidence-based. . . . The AIDS Pandemic is a well-written book that accomplishes its stated goal, to provide an extensive review of U.S. HIV/AIDS laws and policies. The book's greatest strength is its comprehensiveness. . . . This book's lasting value is that it depicts clearly how AIDS laws and policies have and continue to negatively impact on the lives of HIV-infected individuals." -- American Journal of Bioethics

"For two decades -- virtually from the outset -- Lawrence Gostin has been engaged with the AIDS epidemic, bringing to bear his understanding of the relevance of law and human rights to a catastrophic event in human history. He has analyzed, commented, challenged, and provoked. In The AIDS Pandemic, his efforts are brought together and we are all the beneficiaries." -- Ronald Bayer, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

"Gostin has done more than any other scholar to illuminate the legal issues concerning AIDS. What is particularly striking about the book is how well it demonstrates the complex interaction between sociopolitical forces and the law." -- New England Journal of Medicine

"This is an important book at the intersection of law, human rights and public policy. With a wealth of evidence from the US and globally, Lawrence Gostin makes an incontrovertible case that good public health must be grounded in the respect for rights and dignity." -- Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS)