Unprotected Sex Essay

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There are many challenges associated with disclosing one’s positive HIV/AIDS status to a sexual partner. This is due to cultural reasons such as fear of rejection; including partner abandonment and lack of community support. Nonetheless, what does this mean in terms of possible safe sex practices with individuals who choose not to disclose their positive status after unprotected sex with their partners? Although there are federal laws that protect the confidentiality of HIV-related information. There are also laws that impose criminal penalties on people living with their HIV status and are aware of their status who potentially exposing HIV through unprotected sex. Those accused are charged with Criminal Transmission of HIV. To gain more insight …show more content…
K.J. Horvath, R.M. Weinmeyer, and B.R.S. Rosser (2010) examined the overall patterns and outlooks towards criminalization of non-disclose of individuals with HIV who have sex with their HIV negative partners. The article described the overall pattern and predictors of attitudes toward criminalizing unprotected sex without disclosure by persons living with HIV among a broad sample of men who have sex with men living in the USA. The study found 65% thought it should be illegal for an HIV-positive person to have unprotected sex without disclosure, 23% thought it should not be illegal, and 12% were unsure. However, the results did not show that the justification of HIV Laws would lead to a decrease in the spread of the virus. Likewise, it was important for me to evaluate if sexual partners of HIV positive individuals knew their partners HIV positive status and if they consented to engaging in unprotected or protected sexual intercourse with them. I was shocked to find that most individuals who consented to protected or non-protected intercourse with their IV partners felt that due to the medical advancements of HIV it is becoming a more manageable disease. In addition even more disturbing these willing participants found the thought of acquiring the virus as sexually arousing. Thus, …show more content…
Are people aware of their rights to know the HIV status of their sexual partner or partners? Patrick O’Byrne, Alyssa Bryan, Marie Roy (2013) assessed surveys conducted in the United Kingdom, Canada, and two American states New Jersey and Michigan to analyze awareness of HIV criminal laws. Researchers review the existing literature on HIV criminal laws and laws on public health practice to determine if people were aware of these laws. The results show that Research identifies that, in most study samples, the majority of respondents were aware of HIV criminal

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