I could make this a poll, but there'd be too many choices...

[lovingboth]

The law in (edit!) England & Wales used to be absolutely clear: STI infection during consensual sex was not assault, even when the infection was deliberately concealed from the partner.

But in the past couple of years, there have been three successful prosecutions of men for sexual transmission of HIV. They're going through various retrials and appeals, but the basic question remains:

Should sexual transmission of HIV be a criminal offence?

What about when someone lies about their HIV status in order to get their partner to consent to unprotected sex?

Comments

[zotz]

The law in the UK used to be absolutely clear

It did?

This paper certainly talks about the law and "its current confused state" (this as of 1998).

[mhw.livejournal.com]

Should sexual transmission of HIV be a criminal offence?

Not unless the transmission of any other virus is also a criminal offence.

What about when someone lies about their HIV status in order to get their partner to consent to unprotected sex?

As above - not unless lying about anything else is also a criminal offence.

And, honestly, ceteris paribus anyone who consents to unprotected sex, regardless of who says what, can hardly claim, this far on, not to know what the risks of what they're doing are.

[tallis-ryhope.livejournal.com]

yes, sexual transmission of hiv should be a criminal offence, surely the carrier has a responsibility to disclose if they are going to engage in unprotected sex.

as with other crimes that involve victims and perpetrators, relying on conscience to dictate correct behavious isn't enough, unfortunately we need other deterrants.

[uran.livejournal.com]

Any transmission of STIs/viruses should be an offence, in my view.
Although just about impossible to enforce without advanced testing techniques that would cost too much to really pursue, it'd make those bastards keep their trousers on for a change.
Even a bit of paper saying that you're 'clean' doesn't mean much, as you could have gone out that morning, after the test came back clean, had sex with god-knows-who with god-knows-what and contracted something and passed it on to a person trusting the bit of paper that afternoon. Bad bad bad. Sigh. If only we were programmed NOT to shag anything that looks twice at us.