From a utilitarian perspective, the improper disclosure of confidential health information related to HIV / AIDS is an absolute wrong. While such improper disclosure may actually be beneficial to the at-risk people in the patient's life, such as unprotected sex partners, when viewed from a societal point-of-view, such disclosure would be improper. Most people who know that they have a contagious fatal disease will take steps to limit other's exposure to that disease. Therefore, it is in society's best interest to encourage testing. The fact that some people will continue to knowingly expose others to the disease is not a compelling reason to break confidentiality, because many people would forego testing if they believed that their results would be made public. The number of people put at risk in each scenario is unequal; therefore the ethical consequences of a breach of confidentiality are worse than the ethical consequences of maintaining...
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