And yet another reason to get tested...

[apositivevoice]

Taken from the The Body.com:

The California Supreme Court on Monday ruled4-3 that an HIV-positive woman can sue the sexual partner from whom she contracted the virus, even if the man did not know he was HIV-positive at the time.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Comments

Yes

[n6vfp]

Reckless behavior is just that reckless. Even if you don't think you have anything wrong, it is your obligation to your partner to take all precautions, because it just might be the time you become victim to another's ignorance. Thanks for posting.

[squire_jons]

Obviously this case has a lot of implications, but the interesting part I found was contained in the majority opinion, that "negligent transmission of HIV does not depend solely on actual knowledge of HIV infection" but also if the person "has reason to know" he or she might be living with the virus.

Basically, it seems people who either have HIV or live a "high risk" lifestyle where it is probable they have acquired HIV can be sued if they give HIV to someone else.

Now, at first glance, I like the idea of slutty people being held accountable for spreading their diseases around. But...

1. Person that lives a "high risk lifestyle" or whatever where they might get HIV are bad people and need to be held accountable.

2. People who fuck people who live high risk lifestyles, who haven't bothered to get and share test results are innocent victims and can sue.

Seems like a bit of a double standard as far as responsibility.

[lickety_split]

How come only HIV-positive women can sue, though?

[midnightcoder]

It's been rules that whenever a law or precedent applies to members of one gender, due to nondescrimination and gender equality, it also applies to the other gender. So, by making this one ruling, they are setting a precedent for all four two-partner sexual pairings.

I don't know much law, just enough to get by :)

[midnightcoder]

I really have a bad feeling about this. I mean, this is peoples' very personal lives. Yes, I have a responsability to tell my partner my sexual history, but you know what, my partner has a responsability to be responsible. If I'm thinking about having sex with someone, and s/he won't tell me their sexual history... I'm going to keep it in my pants.

Now, I know that in the case mentioned in the article, he lied. That's going to happen, and in that case, I think that there should probably be some sort of punishment; but for unknowingly transmitting an STD? I think that might be going a little overboard.