For the first time ever, a Canadian man has been found guilty of murder for not disclosing his HIV status, and spreading it to others. Two of the man's former lovers have died from the virus, and five others are infected.
Johnson Aziga, 52, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. He had been ordered twice under Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act to tell women of his status and to wear condoms, neither of which he complied with.
First and foremost, I'm grateful he was not a gay man. We are vilified enough as it is, especially HIV+ men. But on a bigger note, the murder conviction seems like an abuse of power that could lead to further disenfranchisement of HIV+ individuals.
While Aziga acted incredibly irresponsibly, the ruling has many larger implications. Richard Elliott, the executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network says:
"The fact that we've got reams of media coverage of a murder trial and headlines screaming 'murder,' I think only complicates the effort to talk sensibly, it heightens the anxiety of people with HIV but also feeds into a simplistic view of this issue. It makes it harder to say, well, hang on a minute, let's not go overboard in using the law."
Elliott also says the conviction feeds "a certain degree of HIV panic."
What do others think of this case? And what about the larger issue of criminalization of HIV?
– Andy
Honestly, ANYONE…gay or straight who KNOWS they are infected should NOT be having reckless sex (defined as unprotected sex and/or not disclosing to their sexual partner that they are positive). If on the other hand it has been discussed and/or disclosed that’s a catch 22 situation. This is just my personal opinion as I would want the same respect given to me from someone. Everyone has the right to know before you cross that line. It’s not only selfish and cowardly for someone positve not mention it I do believe it’s criminal because you have acted as judge and jury yourself for the person you are about to have sex with. If they do get infected you have just passed on the same issues you may have been stressing over to someone else. That is diplorable.
I have to say that I agree with Ray:
[quote]
Everyone has the right to know before you cross that line. It’s not only selfish and cowardly for someone positve not mention it I do believe it’s criminal because you have acted as judge and jury yourself for the person you are about to have sex with. If they do get infected you have just passed on the same issues you may have been stressing over to someone else. That is diplorable.
[\quote]
I agree, what this guy did IS deplorable. He deserves to be punished, but First Degree MURDER??? At least manslaughter, not 1st degree. That’s just wrong and those people who had sex with him should have worn a condom regardless of what he said, do you just take guys for their word? if you do you’re an idiot…
Andy, he not being a gay man is not and should never have been the issue, here. Frankly, that’s downright irresponsible and ignorant of you to even imply that our association with this case is not so much the issue because it happened to the straight community. Sure we have gotten vilified for it, but it certainly does not remove the stigma, and most importantly, the reality of its impact. You, and those of you in the gay community who share in Andy’s delusional thinking, should take your head out of your asses after breathing that collective sigh of relief.
And if you don’t believe that non-disclosure or false disclosure of one’s status does not occur within our precious community, then think twice. Hold YOURSELF accountable first by protecting yourself before pointing fingers.
I thin k that he sould be charged. Not telling that many people might as well be murder.
Granted everyone should be safe whether they are gay or straight. But I agree that he should be charged for murder. For not disclosing his status, he also puts a lot of people at risk. Let the other person decide whether they want to engage after it is disclosed or not. It’s only right that a person know.
I know my idea may not be the same as others. My idea came from my friend who died of HIV/AIDS. It was his belief as well as mine that POS people should only be aloud to have sex with POS people. If this idea enforced by law. It could stop any new infects and potentially destroy the disease
I do believe that someone who has being diagnosed has a bigger responsibility because he or she knows, but saying that he or she is guilty for not telling is just as selfish as not telling. None of us should leave our safety in the hands of the other person. No one wants to catch a disease but if someone decides to have unprotected sex they have part of the responsibility. If I don’t protect myself, who will? I’m really sorry but to wait for the other person to disclose first is just as irresponsible. If the person lies about his or her status maybe that could be considered a crime but I believe when we are going to have sex we should think that everyone may have something and we should always take the appropriate measures.
The fact that the government only bring charges of criminal transmission of HIV and murder against heterosexual men should tell you something about whose lives they value.
wow. i’m amazed by these responses. i’d really thought that ideas about hiv had improved. “…only allowed to have sex with other pos people”??? the general idea of progress is NOT discriminating and NOT marginalizing people. a bit of education on HIV would open a lot of eyes. there are many things to take into account when talking about transferability of the virus and risk factors. among them position and viral load. if someone maliciously attempts to infect someone else with hiv, then something should be done, but murder? that’s essentially saying that hiv = death and really, haven’t we moved past that mentality? i find it a damn shame if we haven’t. i should not be misunderstood as finding nothing wrong with what the man did, but both parties have a responsibility to protect and be smart.
it about fucking time some one got arrested for not disclosing their hiv status when they are going to fuck some one. no people we start to learn to be safer
Honestly, the guy should have been charged with manslaughter or something to that affect.
I know people who are in serodiscordant relationships so there are openminded people out there. People have to take personal responsibility whenever they have sex.
If you know you’re positive and you don’t tell your partner, then you could honestly be affecting the rest of their life.
How about getting tested beforehand? In these times you can’t be too careful, so why not just get tested together?
People think it’s a bit much, but just assuming someone is negative or positive by the way they look is naive at the least and at the most it’s quite dangerous.
He’s a murderer and should be treated as such.
While thanks to available therapies, HIV doesn’t always equal death, in some cases, it most certainly does. In my mind, it is akin to getting someone to play “safe” russian roulette. You tell them that the gun is not loaded, and thus no risk, even though you know it is. When the bullet fires and kills them, it is murder, plain and simple.
The status of your health is relevant to you, your intimate relationships, and your doctor.
Who decided that our status is now required to be public knowledge? HIV isn’t casually spread, so there’s no real public health issue.
I call bullshit.
If you dont know someone enough to be confident of their status, dont fuck.
Or USE CONDOMS.
Why are we still entrusting our health and well-being to others?
This is our personal responsibility.
young poz I agree. Its about time we start holding people responsible for their actions. Here is a person who helped 2 people meet their end and infected 5 others. His irresponsibility is supposed to make their deaths easier? His actions are criminal, withholding the truth or lying is UNACCEPTABLE!! on any level. I do not condine people with HIV to be discriminated, but if you are infected and fasil to tell yoor partner, you are only adding to problem. You are being unsafe, uneducated, and dangerous. People should be held responsibel for their actions. Sorry if that hurts anyone but thats the reality. Be honest and upfront. Lying gets you nowhere but in bigger trouble
Well, being a HIV- man who has dated HIV+ men in the past, I have to say that I agree with the courts decision. It is a responsibility of the man to relate his HIV status to their partner and deal with the end result. I did, and I had 2 wonderful relationships where I learned even more about the virus itself. I believe that we should work towards educating kids further about the disease and the medical options that go with it. It only took a short time to demonize the virus, and it will take years for our civilization to reach the same point that I did.
I have a question. While I agree with the court’s decision since someone did actually die because of this man, what would we do if a mother choose to get pregnant, knowing she was HIV +, gave the baby HIV and then the baby died from the disease. Would she be charged with murder? One could say that she acted irresponsibly by becoming pregnant.
The man in question had sex with these women, knowing he had HIV, and he chose not to use a condom. It is not anyone’s responsibility to know whether or not their partners are honest; either he said nothing and infected them, or he lied and infected them.
Whether or not the crime is murder is difficult to say. This took place in Canada, and I’m not at all familiar with homicide law there, but here it’s not unreasonable to say he’s guilty of first degree murder, although negligent homicide seems a more accurate fit in my mind.
To AJ, a positive woman having a baby is different, and charging her with murder would likely never hold. That would have even farther-reaching implications (possibly with regard to abortion), and also pregnancy isn’t always on purpose. That’s to say nothing of the fact that the baby stands a reasonable chance of being negative.
‘It is not anyone’s responsibility to know whether or not their partners are honest’
bullshit.
you abdicate your responsibility to protect yourself?
you abdicate your responsibility to figure out if you are fucking someone you trust?
if it’s not your responsibility to decide whether or not you can trust your partner -whose is it?
I fear that decades of facing illness and HIV have turned gays into passive victims.
We now curl up and expect others to protect us -rather than taking it as gospel that we must protect ourselves.
finally, they should convict people of murder for purposefully infecting others with a deadly virus. It’s no better then slipping arsenic in someone’s drink, only they die a much slower, and much more painful death!
Part of the problem in OUR community is that people have now decided to preach that HIV is not a death sentence, but a “treatable condition.” It IS a death sentence, the drugs have just delayed the finality of it. (And the drugs ain’t no picnic, and they don’t work for everyone.) Everyone who has HIV ends up dying of an AIDS-related illness, unless they manage to die due to a more immediate cause before that happens. As for hets and safe sex, like it or not, the HIV problem is NOT widespread in the straight community at large, so most of them are more worried about pregnancy and herpes. Believe me, you could show me your HIV- certificate from last week’s test, and you’re STILL not going in me without that jimmy cap on!
Azriel, if a mother if pregnant, she will be tested for HIV in many places. If she is HIV+, she can take medications during her pregnancy, and the baby can be delivered via caesarean. If that is done, chances of the baby being HIV positive plummet down to near zero.
It’s a bit off-topic, but I just wanted to get the info out there.
I do not think that every case of non-disclosure warrants legal prosecution. In cases where an HIV+ individual has used protection, I do not think there is a basis for prosecution. In cases where an individual is on HAART and has an undetectable viral load, this may also be the case. I would emphasize, however, that consensus does not exist in the medical literature as to whether said individual is non-infectious. I think a first degree murder charge is excessive. I would recommend a second degree murder or manslaughter charge. In these cases, especially in the latter, criminal negligence not intent is the characteristic of the crime. The man need not have intended to kill the women, he simply could have shown a reckless disregard for the lives of others.
The point HIV/AIDS being a chronic illness is equally relevant. The key here though is that two women died because they were unaware they had HIV. This consequence is relevant to the man’s prosecution. The illness is only chronic if one receives treatment, and ostensibly these women would have had they known they had contracted HIV. He did not inform them he had HIV at a later date. I also believe individuals should always disclose, and as I elaborated above, I believe when an individual does not disclose only when they do not take reasonable protection measures should legal prosecution ensue. I understand and empathize with your perspective about reducing HIV stigma and encouraging testing. This is an important issue that the gay community and society at large should be confronting head on.
It is tragic that individuals may choose not to test for HIV when they hear about cases such as these. It is imperative that we educate the public as to why, in rare cases, legal prosecution occurs against an HIV+ individual for transmitting HIV. This will distinguish and clarify that society is not hostile toward all HIV+ individuals. This is a unique case wherein an individual wilfully disregarded human life, an act that lead to the deaths of two women. This is not about HIV+ being held accountable. This is about anyone who does anything that wilfully disregards human life, per the Criminal Code, being accountable for their actions. We enjoy our rights and freedoms, including our ability to be gay and proud in a liberal democratic society, because of the law. It protects us just as it should punish a man who deprived two young women of their futures. I do not believe the law and reducing HIV stigma are mutually exclusive.
To have unprotected sex, yes that should be criminal. However, to have to disclose that you are HIV+ do understand that this opens the door to a world of panic.
While it would sound ridiculous to say that laws to make HIV+ people wear signs, or to mark it on their ID… this road has led to this in the past.
That brings up the fact of many other conditions however. Do you have to announce to the world that you have herpes, gonnerea, the bumps… a rash… a wart… that you HAD any of these upto 6 years later because you can’t be sure that they’re permanently gone…
The idea sounds dangerous for those that are POZ to be having sex at all, but in reality i agree with waterblack, it is up to YOU to protect yourself. Its not a matter of TRUST, 1 in 5 HIV+ persons have no clue that they have been infected. With 1.2 HIV+ persons in north america, that means 240,000 persons do not know that they have HIV and are contagious…
I get tested not only for myself, but for my partners. However, if I will give up sex with not positive people in the worst case scenario that I get infected against the odds (i’m a very safe person), will I give up sex with the large minority… its hard enough being gay… so i can’t tell you what i’ll do, and I doubt most people can give me a definate answer on that either.
The problem I could see here is that this would set a precedent that would actually make fewer at risk people get tested.
That said, I’m unsure what to make of this. I think manslaughter (by American legal standard, not Canadian because I don’t know about the Canadian system) would be a better ruling perhaps. Murder makes sense to some extent, I mean not only did his actions, whether non-disclosure or outright lying, have in their way cost two people their lives, it’s also had an effect on the lives of those five other people *and* anyone they may have slept with.
That doesn’t mean I think those people should have abdicated their responsibility to keep themselves safe, but I also won’t pretend I know the overall situation. There is a possibility some of his partners may have known and didn’t care for one reason or another. There is a possibility that they used condoms and the condoms broke (7 in a row is a bit much on odds but the universe is a strane place.) I also don’t know a thing about the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act, or the hows and whys of its operation.
I’m currently trying to convict the First Gay Canadian Man… >.>
he converted me aswell as another 22 yo i met… did not disclose his status (and well knows of his status years before he’s had sex with us… we have witnesses to proove it all over vancouver he’s built up a repuation >.> )
so he fled off to calgary… (and told me he fled to ontario…? ) supposedly to live with the new love of his life… oh wait… he’s married? (he was single… maybe… like what, 3 months maybe ago when he slept with me? >.> ) i have no idea honestly anything about him anymore… it’s most likely all dishonest >.>
bug me if you know anything about a certain “mikko” he has a couple fake names (maybe M.N. is the real one… though also goes by a R.G. …obviously real names are just abbreviated for public use… >.>
PS:
this is “not” an issue of me contracting hiv.
this an issue, of him, failing to disclose his hiv+ status, and putting other men’s lives and good health into jeopardy.
(hes done this to atleast 2 guys now… that’s officially starting to look like a trend and probably has with more other guys before us, at the same time as us… nad quite potentially he may still be doing it in calgary (or toronto? :s ) now and still continue to due it in the future.
This is our Pursuit, not to make him pay for what he’s done to us, but to guarantee that he stops doing this. He is working against society in our fight against HIV. This is why we want him convicted.
I am an HIV medical doctor, and I feel it incumbent on me to clarify several dangerous misconceptions on here. HIV is not a death sentence anymore. People with HIV now end up dying of old age before they die of HIV / AIDS, so the person on here who says that all people with HIV end up dying sooner than they normally would is very misinformed, and I have clinical data to support that. Yes, people who were infected in the 80s and 90s may end up dying of AIDS-related illnesses because effective treatment was not immediately available to them, and their immune systems initially suffered irreparable harm, or they suffered from the side effects of the rudimentary drugs, etc. etc. But there is absolutely no medical or scientific data whatsoever to prove that anyone who contracts HIV in 2009 will die sooner than he or she normally would had he or she not contracted HIV. Nor is there any reason to suspect that they would in the future. Simply put, HIV medication prevents AIDS. Now some people don’t take their medicine properly and build up tolerance, in which case there are problems, and it is theoretically possible for someone to have an immunity to all HIV medication, but to my knowledge there has never been a documented case of this. HIV does not shorten one’s life anymore if the patient does not want it to. It’s very much like diabetes–a chronic condition that must be monitored and treated if necessary–except that it can be transmitted through blood and semen. Look guys–have safe sex if you’re doing it with a stranger. This discussion here is beginning to sound too much like a witch hunt for me. I suppose this is what happens when they stop putting pictures of gorgeous naked studs on here and let any idiot with an internet connection spout prejudiced nonsense. Bring back the gorgeous naked studs, please.
Let me start off by saying I have been HIV poz for the last 6 years, and have met many men who thought it was hot/exciting to have unprotected sex with men they knew were neg. If I knew they knowingly had infected someone for kicks I hope they would receive the same punishment. The fact of the matter is Johnson Aziga, acted in a reckless manner. His action directly caused the death of those people. Which in the eyes of the law is a criminal act. If he in fact lied about his status I feel the punishment fits the crime. Lets, just of the sake of argument throw out his HIV status. If he were to have been driving in a reckless manner and caused an accident killing four people, in the eyes of the law he should be convicted of vehicular manslaughter, or even be convicted of 1st degree. The severity of which carries the same punishment as his not disclosing his HIV status.
Note this from the CAHLN:
“How can a person living with
HIV avoid criminal charges?
There is no fail-safe way to avoid being
criminally accused of exposing someone
to HIV. People lie or make mistakes
about whether disclosure took place. In
some places, police and prosecutors have
aggressively pursued charges, including
some cases where only low risk activity
is alleged.”
Great. So positive people have to worry about everything else now INCLUDING witch-hunts.
I love how there is even a doctor on here saying that HIV doesn’t shorten peoples lives. I will agree that modern treatment has done wonders for extending HIV+ peoples lives, but by no means has it cured it or prevented people from passing away from the disease. Medications are well documented to help people live 20 years with HIV, but in the end, they all die from AIDS related illnesses unless they die from some other unfortunate cause (i.e. car accident, cancer, murder, etc.). I have worked with a very large number of HIV+ individuals and the vast majority have gone on to meet their maker now. By the way, not all forms of HIV are treatable (i.e syncitial form). Some strains of the virus mutate to quickly and treatment is pretty much useless. These cases are rare, but they do occur.
As for this man who infected several women, he should be in prison. I agree that it is each person’s responsibility to protect themselves, but it is also each persons right to know if their partner is positive (if in fact the partner knows). If after finding out the person is positive you decide to sleep with them, then that is your own doing. I don’t feel sorry for people that contract HIV after knowingly sleeping with HIV+ people. If you choose to sleep with an HIV+ person, then you choose to possibly get the disease. Condoms are great and all, but by no means are they 100%.
There is too much information out there now about HIV for people to still go unprotected. If you choose to have unprotected sex, then you need to be willing to accept the consequences of your actions. If you knowingly are HIV+ and don’t disclose to your partner this very crucial information, then you should go to jail for the rest of your life. I should be told if you know you are HIV+ b/c it is my right to choose if I want to take that risk. If it were up to me, HIV+ would only be able to sleep with HIV+. I know it’s harsh to an extent, but even if people are living longer lives with HIV, there is still living their lives with all the complications HIV brings. As someone has already pointed out, the medications for HIV are no picnic. They have some very serious side-effects that are not pleasant.
And to the person who equated this to spreading genital warts, herpes, and gonnorhea, none of those things really kill you. So, I don’t really see the connection. If you give someone gonorrhea, they can get a shot of Ceftriaxone and all is well with the world. Don’t be stupid and equate those diseases with HIV. They are not even remotely the same.
Bpeters,that is pure bullshit!!!!!!!.I have extensive research on HIV and trust me and there is no evidence or scientific proof that all people with hiv will eventually die from an aids related illness or an Opportunistic infection.Stop spreading nonsense on the internet and educate yourself.There are men who have been barebacking with poz guys for years while being treated and remain undetectable.Many Hiv treated patients have healthier immune systems than people who arent because they have made it a personal obligation to maintain a healthy diet,exercise and apply Medication adherence,there is no evidence whatsoever to support that these men will die of an aids related illness.Stop this scare tactic bullcrap and smarten up and refrain from spreading nonsense.And Gonorrhea that lays dormant has the potential to kill you or cause serious harm.
There is a small chance that the medications could stop working for the individual after years,possibly decades of using yet the chance of that is minimal and currently there are 4 new medications with better treatment and effects that are already being prepared to be placed on markets so the treatment varys.If the virus become immune to treatment there are a host of other treatments that can likely treat its strain.As i said i know poz barebackers who bareback with other poz guys and have for years and remain undetectable with CD4 counts in the thousands.To insinuate they will die from an Opportunistic Infection is absurd and lacks any scientific proof and challenge you to provide a source of scientific research to back your claim.
So much on here to absorb! BPeters, if you are nmot a doctor, and BenCowden really is (?), then you should NOT be saying he doesn’t know what he is talking about, just because you know some folks who HAVE died of AIDS-related causes. Dr. Cowden speaks correctly- and perhaps many of the folks you mention did not take their meds properly, did not get on meds soon enough, or were not able to be on meds at all, or simply refused to take meds because of the side effects. (I know of at least one man who stopped taking his meds after about 5 years, and as far as I know he is still a muscle hunk and healthy as a horse (or two)).
In addition, there has been for quite some time a group opf mostly younger gay men out there who have knowingly tried to become infected, because they see those who are poz getting all the attention, getting better care, sometimes getting their meds covered- they actually look on being HIV+ as a POSITIVE thing (no pun intended). I was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1989, not surprisingly, as i was very promiscuous in the late 70’s and early 80’s- it was the thing for young gay guys to do, and of course we didn’t use protection because we just didn’t think about doing so. I look back and shake my head, and a part of me wishes that I had been smarter- but we can’t change what was. I have married (a man) twice- first, a partner of 18 years, with whom I just happened to be living in MA when the SJC ruled on the legality of same-sex marriage. He passed away in 9 months, from pancreatic cancer (3 weeks from diagnosis to death). I remarried in fall of ’06, to another HIV+ man. We have an open relationship, and we both disclose to everyone we get involved with that we are poz. What happens after that is the business of the folks involved, but to NOT disclose, I have always felt, is criminal. After I was diagnosed, I called my most recent boyfriend (actually it was 5 years after we had broken up, and I was with the man I would spend 18 years with) and told him, because I felt he had the right to know that it was a possibility that I had been poz when we dated. It turned out that his partner contracted HIV and eventually died from it, and the partner actually mentioned to him that maybe he was a carrier, had picked it up from me and transmitted it. I have no idea if that is even possible, but boy did it make me feel like crap!
Anyway- I have always felt it my responsibility, and that of any infected person, to inform their sexual partners if they are HIV+, and that in some way not disclosing this fact should be considered criminal. This Canadian law, however, may be a bit more heavy-handed than it needs to be. The man needs to be punished (as if HIV isn’t punishment enough), but it is very difficult to decide (in my case)exactly what the charge should be, and the punishment, as well. Are we now going to demand that HIV+ people have a red “+” tattooed on their bodies somewhere very obvious at the time they are diagnosed (shades of “The Scarlet Letter”)- that would actually go over big in a good part of the male gay community, and possibly the lesbian community as well.
As for the meds- that is a crap shoot. I have been on the “cocktail” since I first started taking meds in 1995. It has changed, and there have been some very nasty ones (I refused AZT from the start, because of the side effects I had seen), but the nastiness was in taking the meds themselves, not in side effects. Of course, I have these same meds to thank for early onset diabetes, hypertension, peripheral neuropathy, and increased weight gain, but all in all I am a pretty healthy bear. My philosophy all along has been similar to that included in the Hippocratic oath- “first, do no harm”. NO person has the right to KNOWINGLY pass HIV on to someone else, even if that person says that they don’t mind. There should not even be a discussion about this, It is a deadly disease, it kills without treatment in most cases, and the meds that are required to combat it and enable a person to live a reasonably “normal” life (what is that?) are expensive and can be bothersome to take.
My opinion, but I live by it, and think others should as well. But that would be my stuff.
First of all, to Jay, check out the journal “The Lancet” (July 2008) where they stated that even though people diagnosed at age 20 are living an average of 42-44 years with HIV, it is still 20 years shorter than the average life expectancy of a non-HIV+ person. That is one of the leading journals in infectious disease, oncology, and neurology. Funny how they say that people with HIV are not living the same amount of time as HIV- people.
Secondly, I am a physician and have an extensive background in microbiology and immunology (taking that is what my undergraduate degree was in). So, I do know some things about HIV. I don’t doubt that people can live long lives with this virus, but to say that most do is very deceiving. The truth of the matter is that most people with HIV are in your lower income areas and don’t have the same treatment options as those in more-wealthy regions. So, I worked with those in low income communities and they definitely didn’t live 40 years with this virus.
One more thing, don’t tell people that they will have a normal life even after being diagnosed. It’s not a normal life. It’s a life of a very strict regimen if you want fight this virus as much as possible. I had the pleasure of working with an incredible physician who died recently from AIDS. He had been diagnosed with HIV 20 years earlier and had led the strictest of regimens when it came to exercising, taking meds, and eating healthy. He came to the end of his life after contracting P. carnii infection. So, you say I use scare tactics, but in reality I just what I know to be. You give people the sunshine version of what their life may be like, but I tell them what it could be like if their treatment does not work because treatment DOES NOT ALWAYS WORK!!!!
Do you think this asshole might have disclosed his status if there was not STILL SUCH STIGMA and PREJUDICE associated with this virus? I think people that discriminate against people with HIV are as very nearly as much a part of the problem as those who lie about their status. Open your eyes and hearts and minds people and see how circular this issue is. Barring that unlikely to occur soon social awakening try remembering no one can infect you if you take responsibility for your own safety. ;/
The conviction is less about HIV status and likely more related to the fact the man was Black. Even in Canada, people of color experience far more injustice and harsh legal penalties compared to their White counterparts.
If the man was a blond hair, blue-eyed, Canadian, would be have been convicted?
The disclosure of positive HIV status to sexual partners should certainly be enforced by law, as part of an overall approach that also involves education about the realities of HIV and the people who live with it. The stigma against HIV definitely contributes to the problem of nondisclosure; however, some HIV-positive people will continue to pursue unsafe sex no matter what. Both realities need to be addressed.
So many questions abound here: could this happen any where else? Is this only possible because Canada, or at least this Canadian Province, had a law which required disclosure? And how is it generally enforced? Is it one word against another? Should people get waivers signed? Seriously – that part about waivers isn’t rhetorical.
People talk about not discriminating against guys who are positive, but it sounds as though even consenting adults would or could have a problem under this law in Canada.
Then there is the whole issue of personal responsibility for the partners of the individual — heterosexual or homosexual they may be. How can they rely on disclosure from a person they have sex with under this law? Or even if there was not a law? The reality is: One, you may get the answer you want to hear, and you have no way to verify the answer, regardless. Aside from that, what about the notion that a guy (or woman for that matter) may not know to begin with?
Where exactly is the line drawn?
I think this law and this prosecution really enters into some dangerous area, and sets some dangerous precedent. I mean it’s not bad enough that the U.S. bans entrance of HIV positive people into the country? Now we’re going to prosecute HIV positive people for having sex, when they very well may not have know, or their partners may have known and just had regrets about it and are filing charges as retribution?
All a bit too “big brother” if you ask me. I see cases where people won’t get tested or seek treatment because of the fear of being KNOWN to have HIV, and if they don’t KNOW they have it, they can’t disclose it, now can they? There! They are covered by the Canadian law — does that make more sense? It applies to the letter, but not the spirit, but such prosecutions often create that sort of atmosphere.
So, while he eschewed his responsiblity, what about the resposibility his partners had? Why is it this ‘head in the sand’ type of behavior continues? Each party has their own responsiblity to protect themselves. Obviously, our educational efforts are failing on some level and denial IS one of the largest coping mechanisms we have. What about all the people having unprotected sex and don’t know their status? How is that really different? I just don’t get it. When we can get everyone to feel good enough about themselves to protect themselves, no matter what their partner of the moment says, then we can see the end of this. Thing is, I fail to see any way of doing so. Treat every encounter as if one or both of you are positive. Even in a long-term monogamous relationship, there’s no telling what your partner is really up to elsewhere.
Anyone that makes their decision of whether to practice safe sex based primarily on what another person tells them is a fool.
Anyone that still believes that HIV still equates a death sentence should take a moment and read some current information.
what year is it anyway?
If he knowingly exposed a person to a potentially deadly virus, it’s attempted murder at the least. I say, if they try to use this as a springboard to a real abuse of power, fight it then. Don’t ignore present justice in favor of future political plans.
Bpeters,stop this scare tactic bullcrap asap!!!!!!!.Stop telling HIV poz people how stressful or strict there lifestyle is.The disease does not define them.You would like for neg individuals to think Hiv poz individuals are struggling with Medication adherence,side effects and maintaining a healthy diet yet for many it becomes a life change they are content with and are not struggling to maintain.And your source does not state anything regarding the life expectancy of individuals who are positive and undetectable.It would absurd and downright downright foolish to assume a man with hiv who is undetectable with a T-cell count that is higher than those without HIV he or others like him have a shorter life expectancy.There is no scientific proof behind this and as far i am concerned those who are dying early ages with hiv have either refused to maintain a healthy diet,exercise or apply medication adherence.That is the only way they could die with the disease unless some other illness took them out.So,please do not feed me bullshyt.Infections in HIV positive people occur with those with unhealthy immune systems.If you have very little hiv in your blood and your immune system is healthy it would be ridiculous to assume death of a man or woman was caused by his/her hiv infection.Educate yourself.I have been positive for 3 years and there is no strict regimen i am following.You say this as if there is a struggle to maintain my lifestyle when it has only become better with the infection.
I am shocked that this is the first instance of a murder conviction… It is murder, straight up. We are FAR too lenient on those who pass along STD’s like it is the common cold…