AIDS
The young people of our species love to try new things. Being a teen or young adult means living in a world of endless possibilities. During high school and college, people try a variety of new experiences covering every possible facet of life. They will probably drink for the first time during this period, will probably become sexually active, and many will experiment at least once or twice with drugs. Fifty years ago, parents worried about these things on moral grounds. Today, both the young people and their parents must worry because these common experiences can kill: they can lead, directly or indirectly, to the acquisition of the AIDS virus.
AIDS presents American youth with a particularly cruel paradox: the very factors that encourage young people to try new experiences, learn new things...
Being a teen or young adult means learning about one's sexuality. But because society discourages sexual activity outside of marriage, people who have just begun to be sexually active don't always have the one thing most likely to protect them from AIDS -- a condom -- with them. Other activities youth may experiment with, alcohol and drugs, can lower their resolve to avoid sexual activity and increase the likelihood that they will engage in sexual activity impulsively and without any planning.
If people acquired AIDS through some activity that did not carry moral overtones it would be easier to educate young adults about the risks of unprotected sex. If, for instance, one got AIDS from mosquitoes or tick bites combined…
