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HIV Testing
Reasons
HIV Testing as part of a requirement into joining admission to college should not be encouraged. One of the main reasons for disallowing the above requirement is due to personal preference according to their health status and rights protection. The individual’s health status and matters of concern are private and confidential to their life. Therefore, this should not be based as a requirement as it is a violation. Rights and freedoms are entrenched into the constitution and respect should be adhered. Violation on the same equates to requirements on civil suits on infringement. Secondly, it helps prevent stigmatization of the individual from members of the society especially upon successful admittance to college. Once the individual is known to be positive on the issue, ridicule and discriminatory chances by members of the institution as well as the community are always high. The resultant effect diminishes the individual’s value to others while it has a negative impact in living through the stigma.
HIV Testing as requirement in admission to college on the other hand should be implemented. The first reason is for safety purposes as it deals with methods of encouraging the spread of the disease. Once an individual’s HIV status is determined, precautionary measures should be taken by all who deal with the respective student. In order for the spread to be curbed, the rest of the student community will have prior information as regards points of contact or potential infection sources. The second reason behind the requirement into college admission can be to encourage transparency within the culture. When an individual is determined as either positive or negative, it helps facilitate trustworthy character building of the students within the institution. Such measures can help in the cases of emergencies within the institution that require immediate action and involvement of the individual. In other circumstances, it provides for avenues to facilitate immediate medical help by the college and increased counseling services to the victim while encouraging on preventive measures to others.
Opinion and Ethical Principles
My personal opinion is that HIV Testing, as requirement in admission to college should be mandated at all costs due to the stakes concerned within the society and the individual as well. The most influential ethical principle behind this view is consequentialism. It states that normative decisions can be made based on judgment according to wrongness or rightness of the conduct. In other words, every advantage of the past decision is judged on the final issue’s impact after the overall analysis. As for the HIV Testing as requirement in admission to college, the consequence is moral obligation into facilitating preventive measures of the disease spreading, while providing an avenue for the victim to get rehabilitation and counseling.
The second ethical principle is based on rights. When the individual is joining the college, there is unlimited interaction with other students from diverse backgrounds amongst other differential aspects. It is only logical to protect the rights of all students by determination of their health status as means of preventive indulgence on the relations between the student communities. Of importance, it serves to protect the rights of the innocent from those with positive status especially without the prior knowledge. In addition, it helps in encouraging help amongst the student community towards one of their own owing to transparency obtain from the testing before admission.