[Vision2020] Kanay and the Law

[Art Deco]

Medical authorities are not quite in agreement with you.

W.

http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Women/Archive/WomenMisc/Q151368.html


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Andreas Schou 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 3:56 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Kanay and the Law


  Virtually every HIV infection not caused by infected clotting factor was caused by an act that would be criminal under this law. Are we, as a state, quite certain that we want to create a number of felons potentially equal to the number of new HIV cases every year? 

  Kanay's actions would not have been criminal if Kanay had never gotten an HIV test. Follow the logic through, and the only conclusion you can come to is that, under the law, Kanay would be substantially better off if he had never gotten an HIV test. This is not the case for his victims. The transmissibility of HIV is directly correlated with the viral load in bodily fluids: Kanay would have had a substantially higher risk of transmitting HIV if he had never been tested and had not received multi-drug therapy for HIV. Kanay would also have still been picking women up in local bars. The consequence of this law is that it discourages irresponsible and negligent behavior by promoting behavior that is orders of magnitude more irresponsible and negligent. 

  If this were 1989 and HIV were a death sentence, or if this were 1982 and the spread of HIV could be substantially reduced by dramatically increasing penalties, then there would be an argument that this law was necessary. But this is 2005, and HIV is no longer a death sentence. Most cases of HIV contracted today will never progress to full-blown AIDS. Most HIV+ individuals infected today will live long lives and die of something other than HIV. 

  This is not to say that what Kanay did was ethical. But, unfortunately, 'unethical' and 'illegal' cannot always be perfectly congruent.

  -- ACS



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