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Despite the fact that privacy is not so much as mentioned in the Constitution and that it was only shoehorned in some 34 years ago, it is viewed by most Americans as a profound, inalienable right.
The media is loaded with horror stories about the ways privacy is not so much nibbled away as it is stripped away by bosses who read your e-mail, neighbors who listen in on your cell phones, and E-Z passes that allow tollbooth operators to keep track of your movements. A typical headline decries the "END OF PRIVACY" (Richard A. Spinello, in an issue of America, a Catholic weekly) or "THE DEATH OF PRIVACY" (Joshua Quittner, in Time).
It is time to pay attention to the other half of the equation that defines a good society: concerns for public health and safety that entail some rather justifiable diminution of privacy.
Take the HIV testing of infants. New medical data, evidence recently published by the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine for instance, shows that a significant proportion of children born to mothers who have HIV can ward off this horrible disease, but only on two conditions: that their mothers not breast-feed them and that they immediately be given AZT. For this to happen, mothers must be informed that they have HIV. An estimated two-thirds of infected mothers are unaware. However, various civil libertarians and some gay activists vehemently oppose such disclosure on the grounds that when infants are tested for HIV, in effect one finds out if the mother is a carrier, and thus her privacy is violated. While New York State in 1996, after a very acrimonious debate, enacted a law that requires infant testing and disclosure of the findings to the mother, most other states have so far avoided dealing with this issue.
Congress passed the buck by asking the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a study of the matter. The IOM committee, dominated by politically-correct people, just reported its recommendations. It suggested that all pregnant women be asked to consent to HIV testing as part of routine prenatal care....