Examining Government Regulations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Examining Government Regulations - Essay Example The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and the states chapter of the National Organization for Women both questioned whether the mandated tests violate a womans right to privacy and the right to make her own medical decisions (Richburg, 2007, Pg. 1)†. Additionally, it is reported that 98 percent of women want to get their children tested for AIDS at birth and this makes the law unnecessary as well. On the other hand, lawmakers believe that the risk of exposing children to a mother who is a carrier of the virus is simply too great to allow for testing to be conducted at will therefore mandatory testing should be made a requirement in New Jersey. The government is certainly worried about the AIDS issue and has made advisory councils to give recommendations towards preventing an AIDS epidemic in New Jersey (McGreevey, 2003). In fact, there are several other groups which support the idea for screening unborn children and amongst them, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) believes that HIV screening should be made a part of the regular prenatal tests that are conducted in America. Thus HIV Tests would be made a part of the basic testing for unborn children for which no written authorization is required (Richburg, 2007). The scientific evidence at hand certainly supports this idea since early detection and treatment with retroviral drugs reduced the chance of transmitting the disease from mother to child to less than 2 percent. The present rate of infection from mothers to children in New Jersey is minimal since in 2005, only seven such transmissions were recorded with more than 100,000 births. In 2006, only two such cases were reported in New Jersey and this situation makes some people think that the law is a case of too little too late (Richburg, 2007). On the other hand, New Jersey’s syringe exchange program was the last one to be started in the Northeast since New Jersey was