Routine HIV testing: the right not to know versus the rights to care, treatment and prevention

Abstract

In their article “Desperately seeking targets: the ethics of routine HIV test- ing in low-income countries” published in the Bulletin in January 2006, Stuart Rennie & Frieda Behets explore some of the ethical challenges of routine (“opt-out”) HIV testing in low-income countries.1 They argue that such test- ing policies violate human rights since patients do not have sufficient liberty to say “no”. In response, we would like to draw attention to the high unmet demand for HIV testing, share our experiences in providing routine HIV testing and counselling (RTC) and discuss the ethical balance between the right not to know one’s serostatus and the rights to care and prevention.