tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512575049150642404.post2940110345158087040..comments2023-06-26T14:27:19.764+01:00Comments on A(nother) lawyer writes: Herpes: Don't pass it on ...James Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05200860773221870979noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512575049150642404.post-19772824077726254052013-03-15T04:49:51.630+00:002013-03-15T04:49:51.630+00:00While I agree with you that the comparison to chic...While I agree with you that the comparison to chicken pox is not entirely apt, likewise are comparisons to a broken leg. Luckily, when it comes to herpes, we don't need to make specious comparisons to incomparable events. We have something very relevant we can compare herpes to: the cold sore.<br /><br />The comparison to cold sores is apt, as they are really the same thing.<br /><br />Herpes and cold sores are symptomatically identical, regardless of the location or the strain (and both strains can cause herpes in either location).<br /><br />Would you consider it reasonable to prosecute or jail somebody for transmission of cold sores (aka oral herpes)? Would you consider it reasonable to legally mandate disclosure before somebody with a history of cold sores kisses another person?<br /><br />Of course, the entire notion is absurd. So the question then becomes, what is the difference between cold sores and genital herpes. Why is one taken to be so trivial that nobody would consider it necessary to even consider disclosure, and the other one so serious that some people (horrifically) feel that prosecuting transmission makes sense.<br /><br />The answer of course lies in the stigma. Your comments regarding the potential stigma of "innocent victim" misrepresent the issue of stigma in this particular case. We're not talking about the stigma that victims of some crimes experience. We're talking about the stigma that genital herpes has, regardless of whether or not transmitting the virus is illegal or not. Given that oral and genital herpes are medically very similar, to the point of being symptomatically identical, we can quite safely say that the stigma surrounding the virus is irrational. Punishing people for transmission of genital herpes serves only to feed that unreasonable stigma. Punishing people for transmitting genital herpes is as unjust as punishing people for transmitting cold sores would be.<br /><br />So I would ask anybody else who feels that transmission of herpes should be an issue for the courts, to explain why tranmission of cold sores (i.e., through kissing without disclosure) should not be a criminal offense, yet transmission of genital herpes should be. The notion that the two should be treated differently legally simply has no basis in medical reality. The fact is that herpes is a relatively trivial medical condition, just as cold sores are (again, they are essentially the same condition). That people would "prefer not to contract it" is not reason enough to warrant casting genital herpes as a criminal issue. People would also "prefer" not to have cold sores.Netsonoreply@blogger.com