hiv status

there's an article in the local papers about a man who was sentenced to 18 months jail for not disclosing he was hiv positive before having sex with another man... and when this article was posted onto a gay forum, it was interesting to see quite a few people jumping straight to bitch about the system, throw doubts about the crime, analyze, etc without even giving a thought about the crux of the case. a sample of the postings went like this (and i quote verbatim):

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post #1:

cant trust the law in singapore.
got a feeling there arent concrete evidence to charge the guy...
probably he is scapegoat use to publicise this act and make a case.

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post #2 (a more analytical guy, i must say):

the news report is rather general. no specific details on how they met and how many sexual contacts they had. if the victim himself also had sexual contacts with other strangers, and not knowing that some may have hiv, the offender himself is also a victim. the report didn't state where the source of the virus came from, which means to say, there are chances that the victim himself may have gotten the virus from someone else. isn't it? but of course, i'm not saying that the offender is right, just that he would be outcasted immediately in this circle if people were to ever know of his case, and probably only the true friends would be there for him.

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post #3 (a lagi more analytical guy):

2 points we need to take note on this case

1) he told the court his condition was under control by medication when he met the victim and that they had protected sex.

2) the court also heard that the victim is currently infected with hiv as well, although the source of the virus is not known

by this 2 points it proves that guy just wants revenge on somebody, he don't even know if it's really that 27yo guy that infected him.

a sad case i would say.

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interestingly, as i read the postings, the conclusions reached, the doubts raised, and even the bitchings, it struck me that many of these people did not actually note that the man was charged for "not disclosing his hiv status before having sex" and not for infecting the other person (not that there was a need to even prove that the other person was infected by him in the first place)! thus, by his own admission (of his not revealing hiv status before having sex), he was already guilty of the crime!

all these postings are highly regretable cases of the emotional heart making the decision about bitching the system even before the rational mind can interpret the rationality of the whole charge/ case. or worst still, the rationality of the mind was marred/ influenced by the irrational heart that had already made the conclusions. and it suggests that many people do not even bother to practise active listening (when in a conversation), or read deeply/ accurately first (and i am not even talking about critical thinking here), before they make assumptions and jump to (often wrong) conclusions.

and sadly, i think more and more singaporeans are becoming like that.

just look at the recent general elections...

picture from http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2006/11/question_do_you.html

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the article is as follows (source: channelnewsasia.com)

Man gets 18 months' jail for not disclosing HIV status before sex
Channel News Asia
18 January 2012 1412 hrs

SINGAPORE: A man infected with the HIV virus was on Wednesday sentenced to 18 months' jail for failing to inform another man of his status before they had sex.

The 27-year-old former civil engineer was found guilty of one charge of contravening the Infectious Diseases Act.

He is also the first person to be sentenced under the new Act, which was amended in 2008 to increase the maximum punishment to a jail term of ten years and a S$50,000 fine.

The court was told that the two men engaged in oral and anal sex sometime in January 2009.

The offender did not inform his partner of the risk of contracting HIV from him, despite being aware of the consequences of his actions.

In his mitigation, he said he found it difficult to disclose his HIV-positive status.

He said the intention was not to harm the victim, but was one of "self-protection" as he was afraid of being "abandoned by his social circle".

He told the court his condition was under control by medication when he met the victim and that they had protected sex.

However, the prosecutor for the Ministry of Health, K Kalaithasan, called for a jail term of more than a year, saying the victim would not have engaged in sexual activity if he had known about the man's HIV status.

The court also heard that the victim is currently infected with HIV as well, although the source of the virus is not known.

In sentencing, District Judge Siva Shanmugam said the nature of the offence was "grave".

He said by failing to inform the victim for his "own selfish reasons", the offender had "endangered the safety of others".