<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Implementation of medical quarantines in America brings into conflict various legitimate arguments regarding who, if anyone, should have the authority to restrict movements of citizens.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Quarantines are not new, but they exist now in a world with new dangers and new opportunities for abuse.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">In teaching medical students in recent years, it became apparent that many students found the concept of a home quarantine to be abhorrent.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Many were aghast at the concept that a patient could be restricted from daily activities, and found it an egregious violation of civil liberties and ethical conduct.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Interestingly, these views were often </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; text-decoration: underline;">not</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> mitigated substantially when students were informed that, in former days, quarantines were fairly common in this country and elsewhere.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">In a world before the Internet in which home confinement was really quite restrictive, medical quarantines for diseases such as small pox, tuberculosis, or even measles were not uncommon.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Such quarantines were usually imposed by a local health official.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">In addition, many families self-quarantined, or at least avoided exposure to potential sources of disease.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">For example, some people used to avoid many summer activities for fear of contracting polio.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">Due largely to the development of vaccination, many of the diseases that would have invoked a quarantine in earlier years are no longer of concern, and the concept of quarantine has become a bit anachronistic, even in a world that offers many portals that would seemingly make confinement less onerous.</span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">But the topic of quarantine requires renewed consideration in the world of today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><strong style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px; color: #34405b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our <a style="text-decoration: underline; color: #000099;" href="http://www.amc.edu/Academic/bioethics/index.cfm">website</a>.</strong></p>
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