Federal officials work to end HIV criminalization laws

[The Straight Story]

Federal officials work to end HIV criminalization laws


Officials in both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government have begun the process of pushing states to repeal HIV-specific criminal laws and to address HIV criminalization in general.

On Tuesday, the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of a coalition of groups and individuals to include addressing HIV criminalization as a key action in implementing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy in the coming year.

The letter to PACHA sent by Catherine Hanssens, executive director of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, on behalf of over a dozen groups and individuals made the following argument:

Time and again, and for many years, we have seen government and non-governmental agency references to the shocking fact of ongoing HIV stigma and discrimination and the documented role it plays as a barrier to HIV testing, individual engagement in care, and broadly-embraced public health goals. Rarely, if ever, is this reference accompanied by concrete plans and commitments to address it.

It is time to turn the expression of legitimate concern about HIV stigma and discrimination from a throw-away line to a three-dimensional plan for action. And this plan must start with addressing one of the ugliest manifestations of the problem – government-sanctioned discrimination in the use of the criminal law against individuals who test positive for HIV.

http://michiganmessenger.com/51423/federal-officials-work-to-end-hiv-criminalization-laws

[cutlassmama]

1. "knowingly giving" someone HIV/AIDS SHOULD be against the law, it

kills people. It's the same as shooting someone.

[Recursion]

2. Flu kills twice as many Americans per year as AIDS. Should we criminalize not washing your hands?

Or going to work when you're sick?

[cutlassmama]

5. I wash my hands a lot for that reason. HIV is a lot different than the flu.

If someone is not old it's likely they won't die from it. HIV is a death sentence. If someone knows they have HIV they should disclose that to potential partners.

[Occulus]

3. So does the flu,

and you don't even have to touch the person you're giving it to.

Which should be more illegal- or should they both be equally illegal? To what general degree do we punish those who knowingly give potentially deadly diseases to others? For that matter, does going to work when you "know" you have the flu (but might get fired if you don't show up) constitute "knowingly giving" (or merely exposing) it to people?

My flu example might seem frivolous, but if you stop and think about it for a moment, it could actually be a more serious local problem than HIV, especially in areas with high concentrations of the elderly- and let's face it, we know flu is deadly, too.

Now think about fast-food environments. If you've ever worked in one or know someone who has, you know that calling in sick is a Very Bad Thing. Now think about someone with the first signs of the flu making burgers for hundreds of people. I think you get the idea- this is how epidemics begin.

Where, exactly, is the line drawn on viruses and the law?

[CreekDog]

4. what other disease is covered by such a law?

:shrug: