Finding a Legal Remedy for the HIV-Positive Infant: Wrongful Life and Lack of Informed Consent Explored
![handle is hein.journals/sjjlc12 and id is 213 raw text is: FINDING A LEGAL REMEDY FOR THE HIV-
POSITIVE INFANT: WRONGFUL LIFE AND
LACK OF INFORMED CONSENT EXPLORED
The AIDS' epidemic has had a devastating effect on society.2 It
has affected a large number of women and children who have con-
tracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).3 Women com-
prised an estimated ten percent of the AIDS known cases in the
United States at the beginning of the 1990's.4 As a result, there
were approximately three thousand cases of pediatric AIDS
known by the end of 1991.1 As the end of the twentieth century
1 See BLACi's LAw DICTIONARY 69 (6th ed. 1990) [hereinafter BLAcK's]. Acquired Im-
mune Deficiency Syndrome is a virus which attacks a person's immune system and dam-
ages his or her ability to fight other diseases. Without a functioning immune system to
ward off other germs, person becomes vulnerable to becoming infected by bacteria, fungi,
and other viruses and malignancies which may cause life-threatening illness[.] Id.; see
also James D. Hegarty et al., The Medical Care Costs of Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Infected Children in Harlem, J. AM. MED. ASS'N, Oct. 7, 1988, at 1901. Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome is colloquially known as AIDS. Id.
2 See generally Robert H. DuRant et al., High School Students' Knowledge of HIV/AIDS
and Perceived Risk of Currently Having AIDS, AM. SCH. HEALTH ASSN J. OF ScH. HEALTH,
Feb. 1992, at 59 (analyzing levels of correct knowledge of cause, spread and prevention of
HIV infection); Preventing HIVIAIDS in Adolescents; Human Immunodeficiency Virus; Ac-
quired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AM. SCH. HEALTH Ass'N J. SCH. HEALTH, Jan. 1994, at
39 [hereinafter Preventing HIVIAIDS] (surveying broad range of topics as they relate to
AIDS and adolescents, including adolescent developmental issues, youth in high-risk situa-
tions and youth who use alcohol and drugs); The Family: Growing Up Gay, NEWSWEEK,
Jan. 13, 1986, at 3 (discussing difficulties for young homosexuals when the AIDS epidemic
casts its shadow).
3 See HIV Infection, Pregnant Women, and Newborns: A Policy Proposal for Information
and Testing. (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), J. AM. MED. ASS'N, Nov. 14, 1990, at 2416
[hereinafter H1V Infection] (discussing growth of HIV virus in women and children); see
also Salynn Boyles, Transmission (HIV) 15,000 Kids in U.S. Infected By Their Mothers,
AIDS WKLY., Oct. 16, 1995 (noting that approximately 6,530 HIV infected women gave
birth in United States in 1993); Gabriella Scarlatti, Pediatric HIV Infection (HIV Series),
LANCET, Sept. 28, 1996, at 863 (estimating 1.5 million children were infected with HIV by
1994 and by 2000 there will be 5-10 million children infected with HV).
4 See HIV Infection, supra note 3, at 2416 (estimating approximately 30% of HIV positive
mothers will pass virus on to their children); see also Howard L. Minkoff & Jack A.
DeHowitz, Care of Women Infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, J. AM. MED.
Ass'N, Oct. 23, 1991, at 2253 (quoting Surgeon General Report that rate of AIDS-infected
women has increased 29%, with women comprising over 11% of AIDS cases in United
States and further estimating three million women will die of AIDS in this decade);
Scarlatti, supra note 3, at 863 (evaluating rate of mother-child transmission of HIV at 13%-
42%).
5 See HIV Infection, supra note 3, at 2416 (discussing percentage of population infected
with HIV); see also Sunny Rosenfeld, Developments in Custody Options for HPV-Positive
Parents, 11 BERKELEY WoMN's L.J. 194, 195 (1996) (maintaining by year 2000, somewhere
between 32,000 and 38,000 HIV-positive children will have been born to HIV-positive
women).
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Finding a Legal Remedy for the HIV-Positive Infant: Wrongful Life and Lack of Informed Consent Explored
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