Supreme Court hears HIV disclosure case
Posted February 8, 2012 6:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
People infected with HIV may not have to disclose it to their sex partner depending on the outcome of a hearing in Canada’s top court.
An appeal is before the Supreme Court of Canada involving two HIV-positive people who were acquitted in appeal courts for aggravated assault and sexual assault charges after not disclosing their HIV-status.
A lawyer for the Winnipeg man, who is central in these cases, told the panel that the law should not continue to penalize those carrying the virus if they are accepting treatment and have no intention of transmitting the disease.
Manitoba crown attorney Elizabeth Thomson argued that medical treatment for HIV has not advanced enough to allow people to keep the disease a secret from their partner.
