Abstract
Since gay men began coming down with a mysterious disease in the summer of 1981, facts about AIDS have been controversial. The disease over the years has been associated with homosexuality, death, sex, intravenous drug usage, and disfiguration. Thus, almost from the start, the disease raised some of humanity’s worse fears. Each person has seen “facts” about AIDS from his or her own perspective. Humans often allow their prejudices, ambitions, and fears to interfere with their judgment of facts on controversial issues. Despite their training, scientists are also prone to this vice, as are physicians. The following article reviews controversies about AIDS facts against differing backgrounds or evaluative assumptions.
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Notes and References
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I am indebted to Harold Kincaid and G. Lynn Stephens for comments on this paper.
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Pence, G. (1989). Evaluative Assumptions and Facts about AIDS. In: Humber, J.M., Almeder, R.F. (eds) Biomedical Ethics Reviews · 1988. Biomedical Ethics Reviews. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-443-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-443-6_1
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