Medical and public health responsibility and AIDS (part two)

Abstract

This study, the second part of a work on medical-sanitary liability and AIDS, examines general and special preventive measures against the disease's transmission, covering blood transfusions, organ transplants, semen donation, sterilization and eugenic abortion. It analyzes the criminal liability of healthcare professionals for negligence, the legal nature of seropositivity as bodily injury, and the configuration of the crimes of malicious disease propagation, bodily injury and homicide, discussing the relevance of intent, permitted risk and victim consent. It further examines the duty of confidentiality regarding patients and donors carrying antibodies. It concludes that criminal liability depends on proof of causal link and classification of conduct as intentional or negligent, and that the duty of secrecy yields only before a proven state of necessity.