Last July, a stopped from the Ministry of Health was getting up the ban on funeral care for dead people carrying the HIV. This decision, which will come into force on January 1, 2018, was welcomed by the associations. “This is a great victory in the fight against serophobia and for the dignity of HIV-positive people and their relatives”, had reacted in particular HELP. A month later, funeral care professionals oppose this measure: a union of independent and salaried embalming workers launched a petition for this purpose.
“A risk of pricks or cuts”
The goal? Obtain the withdrawal of this ministerial decree. “Conservation care is an invasive process, where the risk of pricks or cuts is real, despite the wearing of recommended personal protective equipment”, we can read in this petition, signed by 323 people. “In the absence of scientific proof of the condition of viruses in a dead body (…) the risks are real, without the possibility of curative treatment”, specify these funeral care professionals. They assure that they will exercise their right of withdrawal “if no progress is made by January 1, 2018”.
An initiative denounced by anti-AIDS activists. Mikaël Zenouda, President of Act-Up Paris, thus wishes “to obtain guarantees from the Ministry of Health on the effective entry into force of the decree next January”. “We are studying the possibilities of recourse in the event of refusal of treatment”, he explains to France Info. In all, nine associations are mobilizing to demand the removal of the petition from the Change.org site, on which it is hosted.
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