Contesting Motherhood in the Age of Aids

Maternal Ideology in the Debate over Mandatory HIV Testing

Bibliographic Data

ID4791910
AuthorsKaren Zivi (corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume31
Issue2
Pages347
Publication date2005-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0046-3663 • E-ISSN: 2153-3873
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/20459030
OpenAlexW2226551931
LanguageEN
Citations received10

I N T H E M I D -I980 s, with licensing of first Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) antibody test, it became possible to identify individ uals with HIV infection. Around same time, it became clear that approximately one out of four HIV-positive pregnant women, majori ty of whom were poor women of color, would transmit virus to their newborns perinatally (in utero, during delivery, or through breastmilk). As numbers of HIV-infected women rose rapidly, so too did fears that an impending deadly crisis in United States would leave more than 3,000 babies infected with HIV every year. In response to these fears, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop called on medical professionals to craft a policy that would alleviate the tremendous burden of this devastating condition, especially among children;' but just how to alleviate this bur den, just how to respond to problem of mother-to-child HIV transmis sion, has been subject of contentious debate for almost two decades. At heart of this debate are mandatory HIV-testing policies that raise con cerns not only about role of state and rights of individuals in times of health crisis, but also about meaning of motherhood in age of Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Policymakers responded to Koop's call by proposing various measures

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Law · Medicine · Reproductive Health and Technologies · Virology

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