Two cases are before the Supreme Court of Canada, whose outcome will jointly determine whether Canada’s laws concerning the exposure of unknowing sexual partners to HIV/AIDS should remain a criminal offence.
Under currently applicable law, withholding the information that one is infected with HIV from a sex partner is legally tantamount to sexual assault, due to the lack of informed consent. More than 130 Canadians, male and female, have been charged with sexual assault for failure to disclose since 1998. The law is not limited to HIV, as any sexually transmitted disease (STD) is included under the law. But due to the unique health risks posed by HIV/ AIDS, it has been the STD most likely to trigger the interest of Crown attorneys.
Some activists and medical experts believe the current laws are too severe. They argue that our improved scientific understanding of HIV/AIDS means that the disease is no longer an automatic death sentence, and that the law stigmatizes those who are infected.
But knowingly and willfully exposing an unaware sexual partner to the risk – even a reduced one – of severe health problems, even death, remains abhorrent. It is a crime for a reason, and should remain so.
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