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Originally Posted by tld221
First let me say i totally agree with you. However, to be charged with "attempted murder" implies that giving someone HIV means you have intent to kill them. there are many illnesses and diseases that can kill you - from as serious as the virus to as "simple" as a common cold (which, like HIV, can progress into a bigger more hazardous illness).
so if someone sneezes on me, do i call the cops?
also, if an HIV-positive woman gives birth, do you charge her? she is, in a sense, intentionally (and potentially) passing the virus onto her child. likewise, that child is unknowingly being infected outside their control.
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These points are all well taken, but they are accounted for under existing HIV transmission statutes - it's not "attempted murder", it's simply criminalized behavior in that it's illegal to knowingly hide your HIV status in many states while engaging in behavior you know can transfer the virus. It's as simple as that - passing it onto your child is not a decision, per se, so that's not a strong argument against the laws.
There are some privacy issues with HIV transmission laws (the links I gave earlier go through them), and some difficulty prosecuting if you can't verify medical tests or records, but the risks and ability to pass the virus should be considered well-known to any reasonable adult with the virus. I have no problem with these kinds of laws for that reason - comparisons to the common cold are incredibly faulty, because this is really the only disease that is both fatal, and transmitted to another both easily and without their knowledge.
It would certainly be illegal to inject someone with any other sort of agent that would cause eventual death, or crippling disease - that is, for lack of a better term, essentially what is happening in these cases. I just don't see analogous situations arising from your points. It's not really a fine line or slippery slope thing - this is really one of a kind.