It's About Time

On the front page of weekend Today was the report on making it a legal offence for a HIV-carrier to have sex with an unknowing victim. The current law only penalises those who are already identified to be HIV-positive but knowingly withold this knowledge from people participating in sexual activities with him/her. With the new clause, anybody who participates in high-risk sexual activities is punishable by law if he/she passes HIV on to another person regardless of the HIV carrier's knowledge or ignorance of his/her HIV status. Person found guilty of breaching the law will be fined $50000 and/or jailed for up to 10 yrs.

I think this is a welcomed change in the law to make people who choose to participate in high-risk sexual activities to be legally responsible for their actions. Why this law was not introduced earlier to protect the innocent I do not understand, but better late than never. With the new law, those who participate in high risk activites will be forced to do more regular blood tests and are no longer allowed to feign ignorance as a means to escape punishment.