Obstacles to the 'cleanliness of our race': HIV, reproductive risk, stratified reproduction, and population quality in Hanoi, Vietnam.

This paper focuses on the interactions between medical professionals in Hanoi, Vietnam and their HIV-positive patients who desire children. Drawing on ethnographic research, we argue that despite ongoing state and civil society efforts to reduce discrimination against people living with HIV (PLHIV), doctors do stigmatize patients who choose to reproduce, even if the patients are found to have carefully considered all associated risks. While the effects of the Social Evils Campaign linger, the doctors' prejudicial stance towards PLHIV's reproductive desires and risks also reflects the messages communicated by the more recent governmental campaign on Population Quality. The result of this stigmatization is a stratification of reproduction among the Vietnamese citizenry whereby PLHIV are considered obstacles to 'the cleanliness of the race'.