密歇根新闻广播 专家表示密歇根关于艾滋病毒公开的法律不妥当

A recent legal case in Cass County is raising questions about HIV disclosure laws in Michigan.

Trevor Hoppe is a sociologist¹ who specializes in sexuality, HIV and the law. His research studies are titled Punishing Disease and he is co-editor of The War on Sex, a forthcoming collection of essays that examines the criminal regulation of sex.

Hoppe wrote a piece in the Huffington Post about an HIV-positive man in Cassopolis, MI, named Corey Rangel.

It all started when police pulled Rangel over for a having a loud muffler. Rangel, on probation² for drug-related charges, was cited for not wearing corrective lenses and driving without proof of insurance.

"He had to report that to his probation officer," Hoppe says, "which he did, and his probation officer originally said basically, 'Not a big deal, you've been great in the drug court program, you're a model sort of participant, we don't want this to interrupt your progress.'"

But several hours later, Rangel got a call that would change that. He was told he needed to report to jail immediately and to bring his phone with him.

When he handed over his phone, Hoppe tells us police demanded Rangel give them the password to unlock the device. He was also expelled from the drug court program upon being taken into custody³.

"(Rangel) didn't understand exactly what was going on, but he did not feel that he had anything to hide from the police," Hoppe says. So he gave them the password.

Later, he found out that the police had gone through his contacts list, "making calls to people in his contacts and asking them if they had had intimate contact with Corey and whether they were aware of his HIV status."

Hoppe tells us it's unclear how the police even knew about Rangel's HIV status in the first place.

"The court has so far been unwilling⁴ or unable to turn over the records that would explain why he was expelled from the drug court program and why now he's at risk of going to prison."

The full extend of Rangel's sentence was deferred⁵ when he entered the drug court program, but Hoppe tell us he could now face the full original sentence.

"The judge could effectively sentence him to many years in prison, and it seems like the only thing guiding their investigation⁶ here is Corey's HIV status," he says.

Michigan passed a law in 1989 that made it a felony for HIV-positive people to engage in sexual penetration⁷ without disclosing their status to their partner. But according to Hoppe, the police have stated that they found no evidence that Rangel has committed any criminal wrongdoing and no charges have been filed against him.

"What's at stake in Corey's case is just the notion that they investigated him for criminal wrongdoing when the only impetus⁸ for doing so was his HIV-positive status. So they're treating him differently than they would have an HIV-negative person on probation."

Hoppe tells us that Rangel will now be entitled to an "open and fair" hearing, in which the rationale for expelling Rangel will have to be made clear.

The HIV disclosure law in Michigan was designed to protect people from contracting HIV, but Hoppe's research suggests it has had a different effect.

"These laws, unfortunately, reinforce the idea that we can protect people from disease using the criminal law," he says.

"But moreover they target HIV singularly. We don't have these laws for other communicable diseases, and I think that exposes the fact that really what's underlying⁹ here is that we have a disease that's especially stigmatized¹⁰ because of the populations it affects."

He explains that if the intent of such a law were truly to protect people from communicable disease, HIV would not be singled out in this way. But even if the law was concerned with communicable diseases more broadly, Hoppe says it would still be "inappropriate, merely because punishment is not the best approach to controlling disease. That's why we have public health and medical institutions. Those are the institutions we have in our society to respond to and manage epidemics¹¹ and communicable diseases."

Hoppe has looked at cases like Rangel's across the country. He says if you wanted to argue that these laws were protecting people, "you would expect to find many cases that resemble the kind of boogeyman many people talk about," referring to a person who seeks to intentionally¹² infect other people.

"You just don't see that to be true," he says. "The case law instead is full of people who either use protection and protected their partner from infection, or had an undetectable viral load and could not actually transmit the disease to their partner, or were in a relationship and … were scared, they didn't know how to disclose their status to their partners. That's the typical defendant¹³ in these cases, not the kind of malicious¹⁴ infector that people have in mind."

Hoppe emphasizes that if we're going to go after that "boogeyman," the laws specifically requiring the disclosure of one's HIV status are not the way to go about it. He argues that there are other laws, "assault laws, for example," that could adequately handle a case of malicious infection.

Hoppe tells us that Michigan's HIV disclosure law is fairly typical in that it does not require proof that there was a risk of transmission or that transmission even occurred. He says that actual transmission is an exceedingly rare outcome, occurring in fewer than 5% of cases in Michigan.

For a standout example of how to do things differently, Hoppe looks to California, where the law requires proof of a risk of transmission.

"It doesn't make sense to punish people who have put no one in harm's way, and I think California's law tried to accomplish that by also requiring to show that there was intent to harm someone," Hoppe says. "To my knowledge, you could count on one hand the number of felony cases in California brought under that statute¹⁵, which I think reflects the real rarity of cases that are truly deserving of punishment."

For Rangel, Hoppe tells us the ultimate goal is to get him back in the drug court.

"That's where he should be," Hoppe says. "He should not be facing years in prison just because he's HIV-positive."

1 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

2 probation   

n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期)

参考例句：

• The judge did not jail the young man,but put him on probation for a year.法官没有把那个年轻人关进监狱，而且将他缓刑察看一年。
• His salary was raised by 800 yuan after his probation.试用期满以后，他的工资增加了800元。

3 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

4 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

5 deferred   

adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从

参考例句：

• The department deferred the decision for six months. 这个部门推迟了六个月才作决定。
• a tax-deferred savings plan 延税储蓄计划

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 penetration   

n.穿透，穿人，渗透

参考例句：

• He is a man of penetration.他是一个富有洞察力的人。
• Our aim is to achieve greater market penetration.我们的目标是进一步打入市场。

8 impetus   

n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力

参考例句：

• This is the primary impetus behind the economic recovery.这是促使经济复苏的主要动力。
• Her speech gave an impetus to my ideas.她的讲话激发了我的思绪。

9 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

10 stigmatized   

v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was stigmatized as an ex-convict. 他遭人污辱，说他给判过刑。 来自辞典例句
• Such a view has been stigmatized as mechanical jurisprudence. 蔑称这种观点为机械法学。 来自辞典例句

11 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

12 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

13 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

14 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

15 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。