If you have an STD, aren’t you obliged to tell the people you slept with?

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that an HIV-positive woman is entitled to know her husband’s sexual history to determine whether he should have known he had the virus when they were married.

The 4-3 decision in the Los Angeles County case overturned part of an appeals-court ruling and allowed the woman, identified only as Bridget B., to request information about her husband’s sexual encounters with men in the months before their July 2000 wedding. Bridget’s 2002 lawsuit claimed her husband negligently or intentionally infected her with the virus that causes AIDS.

Writing for the majority, Justice Marvin Baxter noted that state laws meant to crack down on intentional HIV transmission “are strong statements by the Legislature that the spread of HIV is a serious public health threat and that its control is of paramount importance.”

I agree. We just need to be careful to protect the privacy of everyone involved. Imagine cops asking around your place of work about your sexual history just because you dated someone.



  1. Mike Voice says:

    I’m waiting for girls to sue their parents for not giving them the cervical cancer vaccine…

  2. Smartalix says:

    That’s next.

  3. BobH says:

    There is nothing amusing about cancer. Ask anyone who’s received the diagnosis.

    Religious fanaticism may be the most frightening aspect of the planet at this time. The right to believe whatever one chooses is held sacred. Forcing those beliefs on others is forbidden by the Constitution. In the day of febrile emotion pulling the lever on Election day, the good news, some of these retarded parents will be at the hospice bedside of their daughter as she succumbs to their ignorance.

  4. Zuke says:

    WTF? Did I miss something…?

  5. RTaylor says:

    I’ve been intimate with cancer, and isn’t a joking matter; unless the patient chooses humor as a coping mechanism. Did you know that many people take offense to the retarded line being thrown around? It really warms a parents heart of a developmentally challenged child to hear the, “retard” word used as an insult. I’m not preaching, but if you’re out to be more socially sensitive…

  6. BobH says:

    re-tard (ri tärd’ for 1-3, 5; ree’tärd for 4) v. n.
    v.t.
    1. to make slow; delay the development or progress of; hinder.

    The comment was intended to reflect on the “delayed development or progress of” the religious parent condemning a daughter to death as the wages of ‘sin’ rather than on the physiological condition of diminished mental capacity I also immediately apologize if my words were perceived as insensitive to anyone with a congenital abnormality.

  7. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    And we shouldn’t call them assholes either, they’re rectums.

    I assume the couple is no longer married.

  8. AB CD says:

    Just because the legislature made strong statements doesn’t mean the Supreme Court can create laws along those lines. Let the legislature pass something like this if they think that’s what’s required.

    Then again passing something like this in sexual harassment law led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment. People insisted you should be able to ask the guy’s sexual history.

  9. Mike Voice says:

    3. Ask anyone who’s received the diagnosis.
    For me, that would be my maternal grandfather – who died of prostate cancer, and my mother – who had ovarian cancer [and survives after chemo & radiation treatments].

    I was not implying amusement regarding cancer, I was implying amusement regarding our widespread “sue the ba$tard$!” mentality.

    If a woman can sue her husband for “negliently or intentionally” infecting her with HIV, it does not seem too far of a stretch to think that 10-years from now – when all the 11-year old girls reach 21-years of age, and start getting married – there might be some who find they have been “negilgently or intentionally” infected with HPV by their husbands.

    I think it would be interesting if some of them not only sue their husbands, but also sue their parents for “negligently or intentionally” failing to have them innoculated.

    Its far-fetched, but a guy can dream…[grin]

  10. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    Mike, it might appear frivolous, but yes, I too can see it happening. But by then it will be too late. The parents will be suffering knowing they could have prevented their daughter’s cancer and didn’t.


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