[BRIEF NOTE] On Criminalizing HIV Transmission

[rfmcdonald]

From the Toronto Star:

An HIV-positive Hamilton man is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two women who had been his sexual partners.

Johnson Aziga, 48, is believed to be the first person in Canada to face that charge in an HIV-infection case.

He had originally been charged with endangering the lives of 12 women who had been his partners.

Both of the women Aziga is accused of killing were from Toronto. One died Dec. 7, 2003, and the other died May 19 of last year.

Their deaths have been classified as first-degree murders because they are alleged to have resulted from sexual assaults, which automatically elevates the offences to first-degree murders.

All the women in the case are considered to be victims of aggravated sexual assaults because they are said not to have known they were having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person. Previous cases have established that one partner cannot give true consent if the other fails to disclose an HIV infection.

Googling last night, I found two hits on his name. The first one was from the website of the Sex Trade Workers of Canada.

HIV ALERT!!! HAMILTON, ONTARIO There's a guy who has seen many women in the Hamilton area. He is HIV positive and knows it. The latest info we have on him is that he does not specifically target sex pros. But 18 women he has seen in the Hamilton area have reported that they are now HIV positive.
His real name is JOHNSON AZIGA. His birthdate is 1956-06-06. He is BLACK with short hair, medium build. Hamilton police are concerned he may have seen women in Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto, Brantford and Peel Region.

The second? From issue 36 of Cell Count (PDF format), official newsletter of the Prisoners AIDS SupportAction Network, responding to the Toronto Star's article "Needle Swap Needed in Prisons; report says" (28 October 2004). Sample paragraph:

Prisoners or ex-convicts need to be informed about the use of criminal sanctions to prosecute persons who engage in activities that risk transmission of HIV. It needs to be stated explicitly that criminal sentences could be used as punishment or deterrence of HIV transmission even though the National AIDS Strategy is not to criminalize HIV/AIDS transmission.

Two articles cached at the website of The Globe and Mail (1, 2) and another at UgandaNet go into greater detail about the case.

The case of Charles Ssenyonga, a Ugandan immigrant to Canada who was brought up on criminal charges for infecting women with HIV comes to mind. June Callwood, in 1995, published Trial With End, detailing the case.

My immediate reaction? If--and this is a big if--Aziga did know that he was infected with HIV, and if he allowed himself the luxury of unprotected sex with people who didn't know about his HIV seropositivity, the book should be thrown at him. His partners should have insisted on safer sex, true; but the ultimate responsibility lay with him. And yes, this goes for homosexual sex, too.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: 4:35 PM: ponycow has a discussion at her livejournal, and there is a discussion thread at rabble.ca.