Ensayo sobre las mujeres y la autonomía de la voluntad: el sida y la Ley 25.543 desde una mirada bioética

Abstract

The starting point of this essay is the idea that, since its discovery thirty years ago, the main symptom of AIDS has seemed to be discrimination, which appeared to be only against homosexual men, until the syndrom was first detected in a woman. From that moment, and in a short period of time, the number of infected women increased at a faster pace than the number of infected men. In this sense, this paper intends to evidence the way in which the subjection of women and discrimination against them concerning various aspects of their lives explain this worldwide phenomenon.
The concept of free will is discussed, within the frame of modern philosophy, from its conception as a negative right and its evolution to the idea of a possitive right, emerged in the XXth Century out of Keynes’s welfare state. We depart from the idea that women are vulnerable persons, whose right to freedom (free will) is not full. This is related to a paradigm change by means of which a negative right turns into a positive right; thus, this paper aims to explain the reason why women’s free will must certainly be subjected to a special legal protection. However, this freedom must be enjoyed within the limits of the equal rights of others. In this sense, the Act 25.543 is criticized because it somehow protects a conduct that infringes on a third party’s right (principio de enantiotelidad).