Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc.; Thursday October 1, 1998
"It's a tragedy that so many people contract the HIV virus," Wilson said. "An equal tragedy is when HIV-infected individuals intentionally infect their sexual partners with the virus. This is a deadly act that the State has the right and responsibility to deter."
The bill, by state Sen. Richard Rainey of Walnut Creek, provides for the imprisonment for up to eight years of persons convicted of knowingly attempting to infect a sexual partner with HIV. It also allows a person's HIV status to be disclosed if the person is the subject of a criminal investigation for committing this crime.
California's existing laws make it a felony for anybody who knows he or she is infected with HIV to donate blood, body organs, semen or tissue to any medical center or sperm bank. It also states that any person who willfully exposes someone else to a communicable, infectious or contagious disease is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Two years ago assault charges against a California man who continued to have unprotected sex with his girlfriend after learning that he was HIV positive were dismissed, even though she said she would not have consented to the contact if she had known of his HIV status.
And last month in New York a drifter believed to have exposed 13 women to the AIDS virus was charged with intentionally trying to transmit the virus by having sex with a 15-year-old New York City girl.
Nushawn Williams, 21, was charged with reckless endangerment, attempted assault, sexual misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child.
Officials at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation said that roughly 20 states had some sort of laws on the books covering the transmission of the HIV virus. But they added that in some cases such laws can do more harm than good as they add to the stigma surrounding AIDS. Usually, as in the Williams case, existing laws are enough to punish any criminal behavior, they said.
"We firmly think that there are laws on the books which already allow for that type of punishment to occur," said Frank Dillon, the society's head of public policy.
"This bill is not going to be the thing that prevents HIV transmission throughout the state.... We don't want anybody really to think that this solves the problem of HIV infection."
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