The delivery of public health policies may be in conflict with individualism.
Objectives:
To propose measures to ethically provide routine HIV testing services to persons visiting a funeral home.
Research design:
A document analysis of study documents and presentations made to an institutional review board.
Participants and research context:
Institutional review board members (both lay and professionals) and Study investigators attending an `open session' where study investigators were invited to elaborate on some study procedures.
Ethical considerations:
Identities of all parties were anonymized.
Findings:
Opt-out approaches to HIV testing, grief counseling, relational ethics, and a modular consenting process were proposed to safeguard clients' autonomy. The golden-rule approach and protective empowering were suggested to protect clientele beneficence.
Discussion and conclusion:
It is possible to ethically provide universal HIV testing and counseling services among grieving populations in this setting; elsewhere, this should be contextualized.
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