Families With AIDS

There can be few things in life as devastating as the death of a child. In the natural order, children are supposed to bury their parents. When there are multiple deaths from the same cause, it is even more shattering.

Two differing examples of handling such a tragedy are reported in The Times of Aug. 25. Part I carries the report of a lawsuit being pursued by a Marine who lost his family because of AIDS whose source of infection apparently was a blood transfusion in 1981. View has the story of the Glasers, who have lost a child to AIDS, apparently the result of a blood transfusion in 1981.

In 1981, the horror of AIDS was just beginning to be realized. Knowledge of how it was transmitted was uncertain and the tests wre rudimentary.

No person, with few exceptions, knowing that he was carrying the virus, would deliberately endanger another person. The medical profession acted according to its knowledge in prescribing standard treatment.

One reaction was, “Someone has to pay.” The other was, “What can we do to let our experience help others?” I don’t think that I or any other person can make a judgment between the two, nor do I want to.

Compassion is in order for both families and for all people affected by AIDS.

RAY BRACY, Tustin