Hiding HIV/AIDS shouldn't be a crime, doctors argue

[William769]

Prosecuting HIV-positive people for not disclosing their status to their sexual partners stigmatizes those with HIV/ AIDS and those most at risk of contracting the virus and doesn't protect people from becoming infected, a respected Canadian doctor argues in an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

In an opinion piece published Monday, Dr. Julio Montaner and two of his colleagues at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver write that although "remarkable medical advances" in the treatment of HIV/AIDS have made it a manageable illness, the number of people charged with and prosecuted for allegedly exposing their sexual partners to the virus has increased.

"Canada now ranks among the world leaders in the rate of such prosecutions," Montaner and his colleagues, M-J Milloy and Thomas Kerr, write in the article titled Ending Canada's HIV trials.

Two cases of people charged with sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault for not informing their partners of their HIV status will be heard at the Supreme Court on Feb. 8.

http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3410635

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. i feel like it should only be prosecuted in the event

that someone knowingly had unsafe sex. not otherwise

i dunno.

this one is really tricky

[William769]

2. I'm on the fence on this one.

I see the pros & cons to both sides.

[closeupready]

3. I think what we're all thinking is, context matters.

This discussion is about sexual behavior in a free society between consenting adults, not rape or lying about status upon inquiry. I don't see that such laws are going to do anything except 1) scare uninsured people at risk from getting tested; 2) consolidate power in the hands of authorities; and 3) make the crisis worse by effectively sanctioning unsafe sex.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. agreed

[beyurslf]

5. If you can go to jail for not disclosing a known HIV status, then people just won't get tested until

they are sick, effectively losing years of valuable treatment time.