Abstract

In this article, I challenge the risk assessment approach to the ethics of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM). Traditional risk assessment focuses on the medical risks and benefits of using medical technologies, but this emphasizes certain risks and benefits over others. The medical risks of using PrEP are presently being overblown and its social and political risks are being overlooked. By recontextualizing risk within the history of HIV and considering the lived experiences of MSM with sex, HIV, and HIV prevention, we can broaden the present risk assessment framework to include all of the relevant risks involved in using PrEP. We can also better situate risk as one of several moral concepts, including trust and solidarity, which move us towards a more nuanced analysis of the social and political effects of PrEP on the relationships and communities of MSM.