The foundation of the moral duty to treat patients with HIV infection

Abstract

The authors deal with a moral problem which has a risen in medical profession since the appearance of HIV infection: some physicians refuse to treat infected patients because of the risks of infection. The problem concerns the possibility of a foundation of the physicians' duty to treat. The analysis of juridical documents and professional codes examined reveals the insufficiency founding of what to such duty. As regards ethical literature, the right model and contract model are inadeguate for such a purpose: a reference only to the virtue model and, above all, to ontological personalism founds the duty for the physician to treat in order to act for the patient's good.