Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1986. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - October 29, 1986
him from seeing his 2-year-old daughter because he carries the AIDS virus.
Superior Court Judge Richard L. Milan terminated Thomas R. Stewart's visitation rights Friday, saying the divorced father's condition "is a danger to the minor child's well-being."
Doctors had testified that Mr Stewart, 31 years old, carries the AIDS virus but does not have the fatal disease.
Medical studies show 30 percent to 80 percent of carriers of the virus will contract acquired immune deficiency sydrome, said David J. McCarty, spokesman for the state Board of Health.
"I'm shocked," said Mr. Stewart, adding that somehow the judge "decided that I have AIDS." He said he would appeal.
The ruling came after Mr. Stewart, who was divorced in 1985, asked Judge Milan for an emergency hearing, complaining that his former wife, Debra R. Stewart, 28, defied an earlier order permitting him to visit their daughter, Kara.
In a cross-petition, Mrs. Stewart charged that her former husband "has a homosexual life style and was infected with the AIDS virus." She said visits would endanger the child.
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