Govt. criminalises wilful transmission of AIDS

While its practical effect on the growing epidemic may be debated, there is no mistaking the fact that Cabinet’s decision to criminalise the deliberate or reckless transmission of the deadly AIDS virus marks a major turning point in government policy toward dealing with the disease. The announcement, contained in the weekly Cabinet briefing, indicates that legislation will be introduced in the House of Representatives to make it a crime for anyone infected with HIV to knowingly engage in sex without informing their partner of the infection. The offence will be considered sexual assault punishable by a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. The law will go even further to deny any defence that the victim consented to the assault, on the grounds that one cannot consent to an act of bodily harm for which the state will likely bear the burden of future medical care. The measure, considered radical by Belizean standards, was spearheaded in Cabinet by Minister of Human Development Dolores Balderamos Garcia. It comes in the wake of the recent UN Summit on AIDS in which Belize, along with most other nations, pledged to increase its efforts to fight the world-wide epidemic. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Health since 1986 a total of one thousand, six hundred and ten Belizeans have been infected with HIV and an additional three hundred and ninety-six people have developed AIDS. Two hundred and eighty-three of those have died.