Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!bradr@bartok.Eng.Sun.COM
From: bradr@bartok.Eng.Sun.COM (Brad Rubenstein)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: "Is it attempted Murder"
Message-ID: <27736@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 5 Oct 89 01:15:21 GMT
References: <27676@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: bradr@Sun.COM (Brad Rubenstein)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
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Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu
Archive-number: 1306

In article <27676@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> HAMER%VCUVAX.BITNET@oac.ucla.edu (ROBERT M. HAMER) writes:
>>It's your life.  No one is forcing you to have sex with this person.
>>If you catch AIDS from them, I think it's pretty much your problem,
>>not theirs.
>
>This is pretty offensive, selfish, and harmful.  Fortunately, most people
>these days know better.  This is analogous to saying that women who get
>raped because they were dumb enough to walk down a deserted street deserve
>it, and the rapist is not guilty of any crime.  It's like saying that
>a mugger is guilty of no crime because the person being mugged placed
>himself in a situation in which he was available to be mugged.
>
>Stupidity is not a capital crime in our society.

By calling stupidity a "capital crime", you imply that there is a
criminal who has to be punished by society.

People die of stupidity all the time.  Let's talk about how consenting
to unsafe sex is any different than consenting to ride a motorcycle
without a helmet.

Offhand, I see no difference, and no criminal to be punished (except
perhaps the motorcycle crash victim who is using my tax dollars to pay
his or her hospital bill, but I don't feel strongly about that, as
their injuries are punishment enough).

Perhaps you believe that people have a right to engage in unsafe sex,
and HIV positive individuals in the population are responsible for
violating that right, and should therefore be punished.

I don't find that tenable.

Had you asked me if a mugger or rapist is violating my right to walk
unmolested down a deserted street, I'd tend to say they are, and should
be punished for doing so.

Brad
---Brad Rubenstein-----Sun Microsystems Inc.-----bradr@sun.com---