Laura Lin, MBA, JD and Bryan A. Liang, MD, PhD, JD
Physicians are obligated to follow the law regarding HIV reporting and contact notification in the state where they practice while also being sensitive to the impact that disclosure has on individual patients.
The stigma associated with contracting a sexually transmitted disease was originally perpetrated within the health care system as early as the 16th century and subsequently reinforced in the wider society.
The authors of a 1995 Archives of Internal Medicine article assert that physicians should engage in bedside rationing in order to contain rising health care costs, while some ethicists oppose the practice on the basis that it will disrupt the essential trust between patient and physician.