Why Discriminate Against People with AIDS? AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. In the early 1980’s people began to think that only gay males could carried the deadly virus. The New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Department released a controversial HIV/AIDS public service announcement ad targeting gay men about having HIV/AIDS. Why just target gay men, they are not the only people that can catch the disease. Studies show that many people around the world including children have been infected with the AIDS virus from the ages 25-44 including male and females.
No one should have to be targeted or treated wrongly just because they have a life-threaten disease. Everyone should be treated fairly and not just be stereotyped by an illness. An AIDS patient has to face a lot of discriminatory problems. Many physicians and medical assistants have been refused to get the proper health treatment they need. Due to the physicians not wanting to treat the patients, their life span decreases and death is soon to fall upon on them quicker than it supposed to.
Many physicians fear by treating a patient that is HIV positive they are at high risked of catching the disease. Discrimination against a HIV positive patient is a violation against the principles of the medical profession. Aren’t doctors here to treat and take care of people that are in need? How is an AIDS patient any different than any other sick person that is in need? Not only are they being denied medical assistance, they are also being denied of having health and life insurance. The cost of having AIDS is very expensive so the medical companies won’t accept the people that have the virus.
You would think that these big companies would have a heart, but instead they think of their own expense instead of others that are in need of help. Some people don’t have the money to pay for the expenses of having this disease. They deserve fair treatment as everyone else does. Out of all diseases this is the one disease that people choose to look down upon the people that have it. They don’t want to show no mercy for these poor souls that has to go day to day wondering if they are going to get treated as normal person. Isn’t life insurance companies provided here to help others invest in putting love ones to rest.
Knowing that you might have to pay out of pocket to bury an aunt, cousin, sister, or brother is a hard and stressful thing to go through. You’re planning a funeral for your love one and it’s a possibility that you might not have enough money to spare causing you to hold fundraisers, and raise money for your love one. This is all because of the life insurance company denied your love one of getting a policy because he/she is HIV positive. Life insurance companies should at least consider having a plan for someone that has AIDS instead of denying them right on the spot.
In 1984 a kid by the name of Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS. Ryan had a rare disease called hemophilia, which required him to get blood transfusions. On day of December 17, 1984, he went to his local hospital to get his normal blood transfusions. The hospital fell to realize that were giving him contaminated blood that contained the HIV virus. Ryan was soon forced into a battle against his town and the school he went to. News spread that Ryan had AIDS and he was banned from school and given a hard time by the people in town.
At that time AIDS was mainly thought as to be associated with the gay community, which resulted Ryan in being accused being a homosexual and being called many derogatory remarks. Why does he have to be a homosexual to catch this disease, how come he can’t be treated as a normal person? Some people are so self-centered that they fail to realize that the person they are mistreating don’t have that long on Earth to live. You would think that people would give this person the same treatment as anyone else; instead these people have to go through protests, vandalism to their home, and being judge by other people just because they have a disease.
How was Ryan’s fault that he was induced with HIV, why should he get deprived of an education and forced out of his hometown? The school could have taken many safety precautions dealing with this disease instead of banning him from the school. The teachers and the students at this school didn’t bother taking time out to learn about having safety precautions at this school. The school has taken an innocent child out of school because of a mistake that hospital made is wrong. Everyone should be treated the same whether they have a disease or not shouldn’t matter getting an education matters.
What do AIDS have to do with him living in his town getting and getting education? Schools are supposed to worry about teaching and helping students, not about what disease one student has. In conclusion, Discrimination against a person that has the HIV/AIDS virus shouldn’t have to occur in society today. HIV/AIDS patients should be treated like normal people. They shouldn’t be punished or reminded by the disease each and every day of their lives, and should be able to live like any other ordinary people.
They also should be able to go to school get and education without getting banned, or go to the doctor’s office and be treated like a regular patient as everyone else does, and be able to receive health and life insurance policies so that they would be able to take care of their health and prepare for their deaths. Everyone should participate in learning about the disease before pre- judging the person that has it. Hopefully one day HIV/AIDS patients would be able to have just as many equal rights as any other person in the world.