성과 인권의 시각에서 바라보는 에이즈

HIV/AIDS seen through the Lens of Sexuality and Human Rights

In each society contradictory or even oppressive ideas on sexualities bring about new problems as they are joined with other issues, this paper attempts to approach the issue of HIV/AIDS from this perspective. Moreover, this paper inquires whether the reason for the HIV/AIDS issue being approached from the social and political contexts in addition to the medical context is related to stigmatization of particular sexualities. When people talk about HIV/AIDS, the act of ‘sex’ as in sexually transmitted disease is highlighted rather than virus infection, even though HIV/AIDS is not that much different from cold fever in terms of virus infection. Following this trend, in designing the prevention programs against HIV/AIDS, the focus is not on restoring the immune system or curing patients, but on exclusion of the patients identifying them as high-risk group . This tendency also has a history of it s own, especially in South Korean society that considered STD a problem that whole society does not needed to deal with but instead must be solved only by categorizing it abnormal, in other words, outside the boundary of heterosexuality or family relations. Prime examples are state campaigns under the name of so called “purifying camp towns” in the 1970s and the compulsory medical examination of prostitutes under the Contagious Disease Act in the 19th century. We can still see a remnant of these Act and campaigns today in the form of the compulsory medical examinations on the so called ‘high risk groups’. Scaring people by labeling HIV/AIDS as ‘the disease of death’, this society hinders patient access to safe treatment and thus makes the suffering of patients not only a medical issue but also a human rights issue. By disseminating an ideology that HIV/AIDS is something that can be ostracized from this society, what is protected is not the patients or their human rights but rather the norms of heterosexuality and ideas of sex within marriage system. However, this approach not only intensifies contradictory thoughts on sexuality but also does not deliver any assistance in the treatment of patients. Thus, the resolution is not to ostracize HIV/AIDS or the people who are HIV positive, but rather to approach from the holistic perspective admitting that individuals are not disconnected from the whatever oppressive norms or thoughts on sexuality.