Reading Miriam Ticktin’s article “Where ethics and politics meet: The voice of humanitarianism in France” made me reflect on my views on humanitarianism. I never really thought of the other implications humanitarianism brought to the table in terms of politics and decisions undocumented migrants make based on policies like the “illness clause”.

This article especially brought to my attention circumstances where “people end up trading in biological integrity for political recognition” (Miriam).  Miriam’s article began by describing how undocumented migrants inquired about HIV self-infection in order to obtain legal status in France. This was not the first time that I had heard about HIV self-infection but it shocked me nonetheless. The first time I heard about HIV self-infection was a few months ago through a VICE documentary.

A community of Punks, Los Frikis,  in Cuba in the 80’s and 90’s infected themselves with HIV to escape persecution and be send to AIDS sanitariums. Doing something like this is mind-boggling to many but upon continuing learning about their story, you learn about all the social conditions that drove them to self-infect with HIV.  Their story is different from those of undocumented migrants but it shares similar motivations for resorting to something so dangerous such as self-infection. Humanitarianism with the combination of social conditions and politics can lead for people in need to make critical decisions such as HIV-self infection.