Media Watch

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.