Throughout the course of this essay the controversial topic of privacy is exposed. The first point brought up by Amitai Etzoni was on the topic of HIV testing in pregnant women. Many pregnant women don’t even know that they have HIV. If a mother is unaware that she has HIV, the mother and baby cannot be treated. If all mothers are tested during pregnancy, many babies would be saved. I think that the life of a child is more important than the privacy of the mother. In Etzoni’s essay he states, “To save the lives of their children they must be tested at delivery and tested even if this entails a violation of mothers’ privacy.” I couldn’t agree with him more. Biometrics is the next topic discussed. Biometrics would be a good way to keep track of the citizens in the United States. It is scary to think that people working with children cannot be background tested and could be sex offenders and child abusers. However with this new technology, privacy would be severely jeopardized. Drug testing has been given to certain workers in certain occupations. Pilots and train engineers are among this group. These workers are being tested because their jobs take the lives of many into their hands. The worker’s privacy is not taken into account, but many lives are possibly being saved as a result. I think this is a great idea. Any occupation that deals with the safety or lives of other should be drug tested on a regular basis. Privacy is a good thing, but once again, if it jeopardizes the lives of others, precautions should be taken to insure those lives are safe.
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