HIV testing: the legal balance between individual and societal rights.

Testing for the presence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibodies creates a legal conflict between the individual's right to autonomy and privacy versus society's right to control the public health. A body of laws exists to address these conflicting rights. These laws, however, must evolve so as to strike a better balance between what society has a right to know and the individual's right to personal autonomy and privacy. Appropriate statutes should recognize that a legitimate need may arise for a physician to disclose otherwise confidential testing data to the spouse and other intimate sexual partners of an HIV-infected patient.