Media Watch
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DA launches Campaign Coercion
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) most recent HIV testing campaign blatantly ignores the ethical principle of informed consent, preying on and coercing socio-economically vulnerable South Africans.
If the news is anything to go by, Helen Zille is up to her eyeballs in HIV-related controversy yet again, after the Western Cape launched a campaign offering substantial cash prizes to people who screen for HIV.
And while some off-the-street respondents interviewed in an article for today’s (Tuesday’s) edition of The Citizen feel that it is a good way to motivate people to test, the ‘HIV testing lotto’ is essentially unethical because it robs people of the ability to make the decision to test with full knowledge of what that decision might entail.
In other words Zille’s harebrained scheme violates what is best expressed by the ethical principle of informed consent, that is, knowing full well what you are saying “yes” to.
DA puts the DoH to the ‘test’
Going for an HIV test is daunting at the best of times without the added worry that the result might be a false negative. The Citizen and The Star newspapers have reported that a number of people tested for HIV at a Hillbrow clinic were told they had tested negative when they did in fact have HIV. The Health Department’s scant explanation of the event should have set alarm bells ringing and sent journalists and other interested parties in search of alternative explanations for this lapse.Page 1 of 1 pages
