Individual Liberty v. Public Health essays

Individual Liberty v. Public Health essays In Typhoid Mary, Mary Mallon is isolated on North Brother Island from 1907 to 1910 and again from 1915 until she dies in 1938. Mary Mallon is striped of her civil liberties and is unwillingly quarantined to preserve public health. This brings about an interesting issue, an issue that is just as important today with regard to AIDS as it was nearly a century ago with typhoid. Many have suggested, then and now, that if an individual endangers the public health of the community that that persons liberties should become secondary to the safety of the community. However, people that contract diseases are unwilling victims of it and they too are members of the community. There must be a balance. While protecting the larger community, the individual must too be protected. Ones individual liberties should not be denied in order to protect public health. When facing a public health concern like a contagious disease, isolating people with the disease does not guarantee its elimination but it does rob these people of their freedoms. The purpose of this essay is to suggest that protecting an individuals liberties is just as important as protecting public health and that isolation should not be used as a method of preventing the spread of disease. Using two prime examples we will look at how isolation violates civil liberties. The first example is of Mary Mallons isolation. This example illustrates that a well-informed, cooperative carrier, can be a far more useful tool than isolation. The second example is of Cubas national HIV/AIDS containment program. From this example one can see the negative impact that isolation has on the stricken and the community and that isolation, as a means of preventing the spread of disease ultimately does not work. Mary Mallon arrives in the United States in 1896 at the age of fifteen. Although she is poorly educated and unskilled, Mallon is bright and spirited. She mov...