Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - March 29, 2007
Greg Lucas, glucas@sfchronicle.com.
The ban was imposed 18 years ago before the development of medical technology which can "wash" HIV from sperm so it can then be used to fertilize a consenting woman without risk of HIV transmission.
Without a change allowing HIV-positive men to use the treatment, the only way they can impregnate their wife or partner is through unprotected sex, which can lead to transmission.
"All families deserve access to the tools that reproductive science has to offer," said Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, the bill's author.
A decade of studies from around the world have logged 4,500 fertility treatments using washed sperm with no instances of HIV transmission to either the woman or child.
California is one of two states whose laws don't recognize the sperm treatment. "I just feel it's unfair to play Russian roulette with my wife's health," testified Dan Hartmann, a 32-year-old Oakland graphic artist who got HIV from a blood transfusion when he was 12.
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