Letters to the Editor
The Australian, the Age, & Melbourne Herald Sun - March 4, 2003
It is now globally acknowledged that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has a woman's
face, a forceful realisation that the female's sexual rights to safe
sexuality and to autonomy in all decisions relating to sexuality is
respected almost nowhere.
By and large, most men, however poor, can choose when, with whom and
with what protection if any, to have sex. Most women cannot.
The landmark legal case presently before a Melbourne court seeking to
determine whether a man who knew he was HIV-infected knowingly infected
two women through unprotected sex has ramifications far beyond the shield
of confidentiality.
An identity protection by way of confidentiality was never intended
to totally deny an obligation of care to others especially in the case
of such a loathsome and destructive a disease as HIV.
The police investigation of the accused's medical records will indicate
whether the infected man had the intent to infect and surely this is
as critical to the man's defence as it is for any successful prosecution.
The rarity of cases like this make the point that medical confidentiality
in regard to HIV has never been subject to abandon in this country.
For the Department of Human Services to argue that it cannot function
unless documents are given complete confidentiality is an absolute nonsense
that the community will rightly reject.
As the AMA has declared, only very exceptional cases get to be taken
to court.
The Department's over-riding obligation is to the public health at large
in given and particular circumstances, and this should be endorsed by
the Health Minister.
As one who has had a practical involvement in caring for many positive
men and women over many years, I see this as a case that should spotlight
the undeniable rights of all people who have sex with an HIV-infected
person to be told about that infection before the heat of the moment,
not afterwards.
(Millions of women the world over have found themselves infected by
partner/husband...after the event)
Choice has to be an option for everyone.
Brian Haill
President,
The Australian AIDS Fund Inc
Frankston
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