Pb for your thoughts

[superbob]

Here’s an interesting little story. It details the circumstances surrounding a child who was refused access to a nursery school based on the fact that she is HIV positive. The foster parents fought a legal battle to get the child admitted and lost

Comments

[robdylan]

Cheeerist, we really are very similar, you and me. I used exactly the same argument last night when discussing this with Leigh. Rational thought goes out the window, I'm afraid, when it's your kid. You can't reason with a killer virus.

[superbob]

We're related, of course we're similar. :) What was Leigh's perspective on this, as a matter of interest?

[robdylan]

She tends to have a bit of a "bleeding heart" perspective when it comes to kiddies with HIV - she is quote close to a baby sanctuary that helps out. She points out that there is a statistically minute chance of infection occuring between children in a nursery school. Also, she argues that in the event that a cure be found within the next decade, we would then sit with a mass of children who had not had the benefit of education.

[superbob]

Well, I guess it's not the child's fault they have HIV, but that's still not a reason to expose otherwise healthy kids to infection. Statistics are funny things. They only really matter when you are that 1 in a million\billion\trillion. Also, there's no gaurantee that a cure will be found in our lifetime man. Medical science can't cure cancer or even the common cold, and those suckers have been around forever. I figure a mass of uneducated kids if a cure can be found is better than a mass of dead kids if it can't.

[superbob]

Yeah, but Rob's made a good point. There are probably a ton of kids in any school who are HIV positive and there's no way of knowing who they are. It's a bit of an ugly situation.

[robdylan]

I think it's considered discriminatory to force people to divulge their status. I think that's bullshit - I have a right to know, just the same a I have a right to know if my new neighbour is a convicted paedophile.

[kay]

I think you're right. No matter how I feel about it now, how sad I think it is ... I think when you have a child you can not think rational. Your child and its safety comes first at all times. And especially with children, playing .. falling .. scraped knees and elbows, I wouldn't want my child exposed to such danger. Accidents happen, but this would be lethal and I would not want my child to even have a small chance of being exposed to it.

A school for kids with the same illness is by far the best idea. It's not fair to willingly expose healthy children to a lethal disease, no matter how small that risk might be, it is always there .. day in day out.

[superbob]

Hell yeah! I wouldn't want my kid getting sick. I know it's not "right" to insist on insulated pods of sick kids to reduce the risk of cross infection and I could easily argue this topic the other way and defend integrated solutions, but my whole rationale hinges on me not wanting my own kid to become ill and face death at an early age.

[kay]

Normally sick kids should be part of everything. But I truly think it all gets different when youre talking a very easily transmitted lethal disease. One cut, one bump into eachother that results in two scraped knees, could be a healthy kids dearth sentence. That's when you have to protect the health of other children. Especially because they are children. The risks are too big.

To be really honest ... if I would have an HIV positive child, I wouldn't even want to place them in a school with healthy kids, because I, as a mother of a child who will die, could never have a clear conscience knowing that because of my actions, I put several childrens lives in danger on a daily basis.

[superbob]

Sick kids are one thing. Kids with a lethal disease that they carry in their blood is another. You know, I'm a bit more ignorant about AIDS than I thought I was. That article says that the AIDS virus can't survive more than 3 seconds when exposed to air. How does it transfer between people then I wonder. Surely it would have to travel directly out of an infected person's body and straight into an open wound in the uninfected host. Same thing with drug users. How do you even swop a needle that quickly?

I have some researching to do.

[botrinks]

I dont think children with contageous viruses should be allowed in schools unless they have the authority of every child, teacher, school staff and parent associated with that school.

For the same reason that i believe children should not be allowed in schools with automatic weapons, hand genades, killer gurillas or the ebola virus.

I wasnt even allowed in school with chicken pox, forget HIV.

Because this desiese is fatal & infectious, as much as i feel for these poor kids & their wellbeing, they must not be put in situations where they could concievibly cross contaminate their class mates.

At the end ofthe day, theyre children, & cannnot be held responsibe for their actions.