AIDS in the Workplace: Discrimination by Ignorance

The Catholic Lawyer, Oct 2017

Published on 10/12/17

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AIDS in the Workplace: Discrimination by Ignorance

AIDS in the Workplace: Discrimination by Ignorance 0 Thi s Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Catholic Lawyer by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information , please contact - "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin Delano Roosevelt.' INTRODUCTION The impact of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been devastating throughout the last ten years. By the end of the 1980s, the United States Public Health Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had received reports of approximately 65,000 AIDS cases and 35,000 AIDSrelated deaths. 2 As many as 1.0 million to 1.5 million Americans were infected with the- virus.3 Estimates indicate that every year well over 300,000 new AIDS cases will be reported to the CDC.4 AIDS is no longer a disease that most often affects high-risk groups of homosexuals and intravenous (IV) drug users.5 The number of hetero Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933). Thomas C. Quinn, Perspectives in the AIDS Epidemic: The Experiences Within the United States, 23 BULL. PAN AM. 4EALTH ORG. 9, 9 (1989) (citing epidemic number of AIDS cases reported during 1980s). ' Alan R. Lifson, Do Alternative Methods for Transmission Exist?, 259 JAMA 1353, 1355 (1988); see Robert J. Blendon & Karen Donelan, DiscriminationAgainst People with AIDS: The Public'sPerspective,319 NEw ENG. J. MED. 1022, 1025 (1988) (one in every 200 Americans is infected with AIDS virus). ' Cf. Quinn, supra note 2, at 9-10 ("The number of AIDS cases projected through 1992 using the methods of extrapolation and back calculation are 310,000 and 380,000 respectively."). I See Harry W. Haverkos & Robert Edelman, The Epidemiology of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Among Heterosexuals, 260 JAMA 1922, 1922-29 (1988) (discussing sexual cases of AIDS reported to the CDC doubles every fourteen to sixteen months. s Unfortunately, public fears and misconceptions have increased and have led to harsh discriminatory practices affecting education, employment, health care, and housing." The myths and fears surrounding AIDS have been as damaging to the afflicted as the disease itself.5 Although a survey indicated that by 1988 less than fifty lawsuits had been filed regarding AIDS discrimination in the workplace, a drastic increase in litigation should occur in the years to come.9 Statutory and judicial responses on employment and related benefits protection have been shaped by the efforts of AIDS activists and civil-liberties groups."° Moreover, the availability of new drugs and treatments will afford AIDS victims the opportunity to prolong their lives and to remain in the workplace despite the contagious yet controllable disease." Thus, balancing the interests and rights of AIDS victims, their co-workers, and employers will constitute a definite challenge for the 1990s. 2 This Note will address some of the issues related to AIDS discrimination in the workplace. First, it will explore the medical characteristics of the disease, including methods of transmission and available treatments. Second, it will discuss the legal issues implicated by the classification of AIDS as a handicap. Third, it will enumerate various forms of statutory protection and their impact on victims, co-workers, and employers. Finally, this Note will suggest the need for public education and employment policies to effectively assist courts and legislators in battling heterosexual transmission of AIDS in United States, Africa and Haiti). o Id. at 1927. Of the adult-afflicted AIDS cases reported to CDC, 63% were homosexual or bisexual men, 19% IV drug users, 7% homosexual men who were also IV drug users, 4% heterosexuals, 3% blood transfusion recipients, 1% hemophiliacs, and 3% individuals for whom the risk factor information was incomplete. See Quinn, supra note 2, at 9. Among the child cases, 77% were born to a parent with AIDS or at risk for AIDS, 13% were blood transfusion recipients, 6% hemophiliacs, and 4% children for whom the risk factor information was incomplete. Id. Larry Gostin, A Decade of a Maturing Epidemic: An Assessment and.Directionfor Future Public Policy, 16 AM. J.L. & MED. 1, 19 (1990). ' See id. at 20. "Society's accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are just as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment. Few aspects of handicap give rise to the same level of public fear and misapprehension as contagiousness." Id. (quoting School Bd. v. Arline, 480 U.S. 273, 284 (1987)). ' Thamer E. Temple, Employers Prepare:Hope for AIDS Victims Means Conflict in Your Workplace, 41 LAB.L.J. 694, 694-95 (1990). Until recently, AIDS victims have not survived long enough to bring a lawsuit. New drugs, however, have dramatically increased the life expectancy of AIDS patients. Id. 10 Arthur S. Leonard, AIDS, Employment a (...truncated)


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AIDS in the Workplace: Discrimination by Ignorance, The Catholic Lawyer, 2017, Volume 35, Issue 2,