Events

From the very beginning of the epidemic, AIDS was linked to punishment. Calls to punish people living with HIV - mostly stigmatized minorities - began before doctors had even settled on a name for the disease. Punishing Disease looks at how HIV was transformed from sickness to badness under the criminal law and investigates the consequences of inflicting penalties on people living with disease. Trevor Hoppe's new book explores these questions and the further implications of the police power used against diseases like hepatitis and meningitis. Along with Allison Rice from Duke's HIV/AIDS Policy Clinic, who was instrumental in changing North Carolina's HIV criminalization laws, and Robert Suttle from the Sero Project, we will discuss the dangers of punitive and coercive responses to illness in our society and how to design a system that respects the individual while fighting the disease. Sponsored by the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy Symposium 2019 - "Legislating Relationships: Individual Rights in Context." For more information, please contact Gabrielle Goodrow at gmg19@duke.edu.