Work

Towards an Integration of PrEP into a Safe Sex Ethics Framework for Men Who Have Sex with Men

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: The ethics of safe sex in the gay community has, for many years, been focused on debates surrounding the responsibility (or lack thereof) regarding the use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission, once the only tool available. With the development of Truvada as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV, for the first time in the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic there is the potential to significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission during sex without the use of condoms (without taking into consideration ‘treatment as prevention’ with HIV-positive people). The introduction of PrEP necessitates a renewed discussion about the politics and ethics of safe sex for men who have sex with men (MSM). We present the arguments of authors who hold radically opposite positions with regard to the ethics of condom use by gay men, but who currently both criticize the use of PrEP. We offer a critique of their arguments and advance the position that the use of PrEP, even without condoms, can be acceptable and part of a safe sex ethics framework for MSM.

Source: Public Health Ethics

DOI: 10.1093/phe/phy018

Authors: Julien Brisson, Vardit Ravitsky, Bryn Williams-Jones

Institution: Université de Montréal

Language: English

Topic: HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: Canadian Institutes of Health Research