HIV/AIDS in Contact Sport

This paper will discuss the issue of HIV/AIDS in contact sports. The focus of this paper will be on whether mandatory testing of athletes in these sports is justified by the danger posed by athletes infected with HIV and whether the law as it now stands would allow such mandatory testing. The first part of the paper will discuss the factual issue of the danger of HIV in sports. This discussion will focus upon the differing threats of spreading HIV in various sports. Of particular interest are contact sports, such as football and boxing, and theoretically non-contact sports, such as basketball, in which contact is inevitable. The second part of the paper will examine the state of the law in this area. This part will focus upon employment law, since this area of the law most affects the relationship between professional athletes and their teams. This discussion will look at the implications of mandatory testing upon issues of privacy and confidentiality, state law provisions, and the American with Disabilities Act. Because of the number of legal issues involved in this area, this paper will focus solely upon professional sports and athletes. Some of the issues, such as the right of privacy and confidentiality, are also present in amateur and scholastic sports. However, professional sports also involve the very important area of employment law. Currently, the issue of mandatory testing for HIV is being most vigorously contested in the emp and bloody contact is constant. Immediate treatment of wounds might be helpful, but bloody contact is inevitable during the initial injury. Finally, "combat" sports involve bloody contact as an objective of the sport. The object of these sports, which include boxing, karate, and wrestling, is to physically suppress an opponent. Aggressive physical contact is the whole point of these sports. The mixing of the participants' blood is inevitable, and the fear of HIV transmission is higher in these sports than in any other. Although certain policies can be implemented to restrict bloody contact, the nature of these sports means that such policies will be relatively ineffective. Legal Issues of Mandatory Testing At least one commentator has developed a structure for analyzing proposals for screening particular populations for HIV. This structure consists of four criteria: First, the purpose of the testing must be ethically acceptable. Second, the testing must be mandatory and effective for achieving this purpose. Third, it must be determined whether and to what extent the mandatory testing of professional athletes violates their individual rights. The ethics of mandatory testing can be evaluated under principles of ut