Résumé :
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1- Although most babies born to women with HIV will not develop AIDS, many health professionals and segments of the public object when these women will not forgo pregnancy. Such a view fails to consider fully the cultural, political, and socioeconomic contexts in which seropositive women make reproductive choices. HIV infection is only one of many conditions of chronic disease that can be passed from a woman to her fetus, and should not be singled out as a target for coercive policies. Rather, government and society have an obligation to empower whomen to protect themselves again HIV infection in the first place, and to offer them options for self esteem and achievement independent of reproduction. (R.A.) 2-The risks of perinatal HIV transmission do not currently constitute grounds for morally criticizing the reproductive choices of particular infected women. A contextualized assessment of morally relevant factors might in some cases, however, justify judgements of reproductives irresponsibility. Although no women should be subject to any form of coercive pressure when making the decision to initiate or continue pregnancy, a "moral-education" model of nondirective counseling may be appropriate for women carrying HIV. Not even highly desirable, concerted public efforts to foster social justice will eliminate the ethical questions of whether these women should have children and how to counsel them. (R.A.)
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