In response to the arti­cle titled, “Man­i­toba woman jailed after stop­ping tuber­cu­lo­sis treat­ment.’ Click here for arti­cle.
By Jonathan Smith

The ques­tion of forced quar­an­tine in the con­text of tuber­cu­lo­sis makes for a lively dis­cus­sion amongst us in the human rights arena.  Iso­la­tion cre­ates the oppor­tu­nity to ensure accu­rate and appro­pri­ate treat­ment, as well as mon­i­tor our patients’ safety, recov­ery, and gen­eral well being.  There is, how­ever, an abdi­ca­tion of one’s per­sonal rights in doing so: they give up their per­sonal rights for the greater good of the pop­u­la­tion.  In most con­texts, peo­ple will acknowl­edge their need for quar­an­tine and do so will­ingly.  But it gets a lit­tle hairier when peo­ple refuse to give up their rights — when the ques­tion of forced quar­an­tine comes in. Canada has recently shown us an exquis­ite exam­ple of how to com­pletely screw this up. Con­tinue read­ing →