Opt-out HIV Testing and Consent: Health+Law Research Featured on UNSW Newsroom
Could the language of ‘opt-out’ HIV testing create confusion about informed consent?
A new UNSW Newsroom article explores recent Health+Law research examining the legal implications of clinician-initiated ‘opt-out’ HIV testing in Australia. The article features Health+Law Research Lead Associate Professor David Carter explaining both the potential public health benefits alongside the legal and ethical risks of the opt-out model.
The article responds to our publication in the CSIRO’s journal Sexual Health examining the legal implications of opt-out testing, and using legal doctrinal analysis to clarify the legal frameworks that would govern this practice. In Australia, opt-out testing models for HIV have historically largely operated only in antenatal care. Recently, the approach has expanded in parts of Europe and the UK, where it has been shown to support increased HIV testing and diagnosis; in Australia, it was recently added to national guidelines on HIV testing.
If opt-out HIV testing is taken up more widely in Australian healthcare settings, can we ensure and also protect patient autonomy and informed consent, acknowledging the ethical and legal implications of an HIV test, both historically and today? Our article in Sexual Health grapples with that question through a doctrinal lens, and is the first legal analysis of the opt-out model in Australia.
As with all new public health interventions, finding a path that secures the model’s benefits and its improvements to efficacy, alongside the legal and ethical obligations of healthcare workers will be essential for both good public health outcomes and patients’ rights. As David explained to UNSW News:
‘Opt-out testing relies on the patient not declining the test. But silence or inaction isn’t enough to meet the legal standards of consent.’
Read the full UNSW News article
Read our journal article, ‘Clinician-initiated opt-out HIV testing and the law’ in Sexual Health
Read an earlier news post summarising the research and its recommendations