Preventing AIDS in the United States

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 and become the masters of their lives makes AIDS-risky behavior more attractive. 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 with physical exertion, the country's leaders would have no trouble mounting a campaign to educate young people to always cover arms and legs with insect repellant when running track, playing basketball or football, etc.

No one would be embarrassed to talk about it, and moral leaders would not give speeches saying that young people should not be playing sports anyway. Unfortunately, however, the acquisition of the AIDS virus is tied to behaviors many people believe are morally wrong: drug use and sex outside of marriage. So the two best protections people have, clean needles and condoms, carry emotional baggage.

If a school teaches students in a health class that if they inject drugs they must always use clean needles and not share them, some critics will complain that the school promotes drug use by teaching students how to abuse drugs more safely. Some people charge schools that educate their students about safe sex with.