ABSTRACT
Investigations into the phenomenon of HIV-related discrimination often observe that it seems to reach its greatest intensity within medical institutions and in the practice of health care professionals. Gostin (1992) in his survey of HIV-related discrimination litigation in the US, maintains that other sites of discrimination, in education and the workplace for example, have witnessed a lessening of discriminatory practice as the epidemic progresses, and that ‘complaints about discrimination in health care, nursing, and social services have predominated in recent years’ (Gostin 1992:159). The New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board Report on AIDS-related discrimination similarly notes that discrimination is ‘most consistently and extensively reported in [the area] of health care’ both in Australia and internationally, and is documented in the services of ‘general practitioners, hospitals, surgeons, dentists, and allied health professionals’ (NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, 1992:30).
