Last July, New York Press published an article by Liam Scheff entitled “Orphans on Trial.” The piece sparked a slow-building wave of media interest in the children of Incarnation Children's Center in Washington Heights, who have since become a lightning rod for a larger debate on HIV/AIDS drugs. A small but increasingly influential faction, commonly known as AIDS denialists, claims that HIV does not cause AIDS, and that the drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS are worse than the disease. We have invited longtime human-rights activist Jeanne Bergman and Celia Farber, a journalist and self-described “AIDS dissident,” to discuss the positions of their respective camps. We hope the heat generates some light.
—The editors
