Man gets 15 years for infecting son with HIV

[Roon]

GRAND JUNCTION (AP) - A Grand Junction man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for infecting his son with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=119714&catid=346

[Deja Q]

1. The worst thing anybody can do to another - especially one's own flesh and blood.

:cry:

I hope that man in turn gets some foul treatment. He is unworthy of any decency being applied to him.

I hope a cure is found; so many people infected and then come articles like that one you posted... that little boy's life is in tatters because OF HIS OWN FATHER. It's disgusting beyond belief. x( (there are drugs to slows its effects, but the side-effects I'd read are no picnic either...)

That man was callous beyond belief.

Maybe his son will grow up and kill him, with the father locked up in solitary and under the most teasing of conditions. No sympathy from me. Karma or poetic justice, this is one of those few occasions where nothing would be deemed "draconian" or "barbaric".

[Roon]

2. Kids with HIV don't have a developed immune system yet

so they tend to get sicker more often than adults with HIV.

[pitohui]

3. but the son would never be alive if the man had rubber'd up?

this man is already getting a severe punishment, for his lies, he has infected the mother of his child and his son

i don't think the son will grow up and kill him, he will certainly be conflicted because if his father had been honest, he would have never lived at all...

a very sad story, i pity everyone involved, i doubt the father will survive 15 yrs in prison with the poor medical care i hear reported from america's prisons, plus he has the added suffering of knowing he has condemned his own girlfriend and his own child to his same illness -- he did a terrible thing but he's paying for it now, i don't think we need to wish for his son to grow up and kill him

we need a cure, the human sex drive is what it is, men lie to get laid, for that matter women lie to get laid, i'm not sure we can overcome that

[Zavulon]

4. What we need and what we feel are two different things.

I hope his son kills him, too. Fifteen years is way too light. Life in prison just for infecting the woman is too light..

[kiva]

5. I don't think anyone is trying to deny that humans have sex

drives, but condoms exist for a reason. The fact that this couple chose to have unprotected sex was stupid, and the fact he knew he was HIV positive makes it stupid beyond reason.

[mwooldri]

6. This article strikes very close to home, I'm afraid.

My wife early on in her pregnancy failed an HIV screening. It was a false positive, thankfully but still was scary. We all got tested, me, my son, we call came back negative. We were concerned with my wife because she works in a medical testing laboratory and she does handle HIV+ specimens. However even though the test results keep coming back odd (failing one, passing another, inconclusive a third), the doctors have given her the all clear.

If that man didn't know he was HIV+, it would have just been a tragedy... but since that man knew he was HIV+ and having unprotected sex, and two people got HIV through his actions then he's definitely reckless and needs some suitable punishment. The father did wrong, he knows it, he apologized and he's going to be doing the time. IMO, that's right and I don't dispute that.

I find the crime he was found guilty of more troubling though - felony child abuse. The child wasn't even BORN - from what I could tell from the limited information in the report, the child was just barely conceived at the time of infection. This would therefore say that now fertilized eggs now have legal rights and this messes up a whole lot of other issues, abortion and embryo stem cell research being the two that easily come to mind. Besides, how can ANYONE abuse a fertilized egg, in a womb, without any surgical or biological intervention? It may be that this particular crime was the only one the judge could make fit, or something...

I'm not going to turn this into a pro/anti abortion or stem cell debate question - but a man convicted of abusing an unborn child, how does that change things?

Mark.

[ohheckyeah]

8. Very good point.

What the man did was vile but felony child abuse in this case is indeed a slippery slope. I have no trouble with him getting the same or a higher sentence for infecting the woman.

[Pushed To The Left]

7. I wouldn't mind seeing him get life in prison

:mad: