The German pop singer Nadja Benaissa was found guilty of causing bodily harm to her ex-boyfriend when she had unprotected sex with him knowing she was HIV positive. Her ex was infected as a result of this encounter. She could have been sentenced to ten years in jail, but a judge in Germany gave her a suspended two year sentence and 300 hours of community service.
The prosecutor said he was fine with the sentence because she showed remorse and that it happened a long time ago when she was younger. Well, sure anything that happened in the past would make the person younger, but she was 24 at the time. A microbiologist was able to determine that the ex boyfriend had the same type of strain of AIDS virus because it is an extremely rare strain.
I am on the fence about this. The guy has to live with this for the rest of his life and she should have told him, but at the same time, he does share some responsibility to be safe. She should have told him. I do know that she should have to pay his medical bills for the rest of his life, but maybe no jail was right. What do you think?
Jail. Definitely.
ReplyDeletei think you should go into any sexual relationship as if your partner has something you don't want to get. USE CONDOMS.
ReplyDeleteshe should've told him but he's a moron for not protecting himself and leaving his health in someone else's hands.
i think the decision is fair.
I kind of agree with Nancer on this one. This wasn't so long ago that people didn't know the risks.
ReplyDeleteOf course she should have told him, there's no doubt about that, and I think that her sentence somehow should have included something going back to him, like paying his medical bill or something. But at the same time, having unprotected sex is dumb and everyone knows it.
You should always use protection when starting a sexual relationship with someone new. Enty, you didn't mention that she had sex with several men who were in the dark about her HIV. On that note, she should have definitely been sentenced to jail. She could have been a WMD, literally (not a joke, STD's are passed around by some who know their health status and don't give enough of a damn to tell their partners about it).
ReplyDeleteI read about this on CNN. It also said that this was tried via juvenile courts because it happened when she was 17. She has been HIV+ since she was in her teens. I do feel that if this had been in the US, she would have gotten jail time. I believe there have been some cases in the US and the people got jail time. I'm also wondering if this is the person in the blind about the HIV+ pop singer. I know she isn't a big deal here, but apparently she is from the #1 pop group in Germany.
ReplyDeleteI don't know - she was about the same age that Lohan is now. If Lohan were to do this, would we be saying it happened "when she was younger"?
ReplyDeleteI think a suspended sentence is too lenient. I kind of look at knowingly passing on something like HIV as a type of manslaughter.
There's a man from Winnipeg, Manitoba, currently in Calgary, Alberta, who has a pending arrest warrant on him. So far 3 women have tested positive for HIV. He tested positive in 2006, knows he's positive, but didn't tell the women and refused to use a condom.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the women were foolish to allow him not to use a condom, we must keep in mind that condoms are not 100% proof against HIV.
I'm not buying the I was too young crap.
ReplyDeleteHow long has AIDS been around?
Only an idiot would believe it couldn't be transmitted through unprotected sex.
She's lucky. She should be in jail.
nothing's 100% effective in preventing HIV transmission OR pregnancy.
ReplyDeletehowever, this story is exactly, EXACTLY the reason why you either use protection or think better of it, and not have sex at all.
too many men are casual about protection and some just flat don't like using condoms.
so like i said, yes, she was totally wrong but i assume she didn't hold them down and force them to have sex with her, so at least SOME of the blame for their predicament has to be their own.
I was my Brother's primary care giver throughout the last 2 years towards the end of his battle with AIDS and I held him all the way out of this world. I wouldn't wish the disease on anyone.
ReplyDeleteJail. Medical bills and a whole lot more. No excuse. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
I'm saying some really nasty words in my head right now.
Jail for attempted murder is what's called for. My mother died of AIDS when there wasn't much information available. Folks now have no excuse.
ReplyDeleteThoughtElf- so did I and it was the hardest thing i've ever done.
ReplyDeleteTREAT EVERY PARTNER AS IF THEY HAVE HIV,YOU ARE YOUR ONLY ADVOCATE! Get tested and often!
She deserves something harsher than community service, paying restitution is a good idea, Enty.
ThoughtElf: I'm sorry to hear about your brother. It's a nasty, nasty disease. My mother got it from a boyfriend in the late 80's. She was 43 years old when she died, the same age I am right now.
ReplyDeleteaids was first recognized in the early 80s.
ReplyDeleteHer ex-boyfirend will very surely die of AIDS, so she basically committed murder. A very long, slow and painful murder. Who would ever say a murderer who made his/her victim suffer for a long time before dying shouldn't get some prison time?
ReplyDeleteNo fence sitting for me. He was careless. She was callous and inhumane. Jail. Excuse me; PRISON.
ReplyDeleteSend her ass to jail. I don't care if he was foolish or not, she's the one who knew.
ReplyDelete@Jennifer - Enty has said in a previous post that Nadja Benaissa's not the answer to that blind item.
@ Cheryl & ThoughtElf - I'm sorry for your losses. I can't imagine how tough that would be.
@HannahPalindrome - They think the HIV strand has been around for at least 100 years, but the medical community wasn't aware of it until the late 70s early 80s. That's when it became a pandemic.
Gah, prison. Not jail. Thanks, Mango.
ReplyDeleteTerrible thing to do. I used to be 24 and that's no excuse for anything.
ReplyDeleteShoplifting? nope. Car-jacking? nope. Murder? surely not. Rape? not at all. Sexual harassment? no... Assault & battery? nope, not that either.
If those things cannot be excused by being 24 than this should not be either.
I say jail or prison for sure.
community service thing sounds about right.....
ReplyDeleteprison isn't the answer for everything...
You have no idea how ignorant some people can be about Aids even in this day and age...
It's the gay disease....don't worry I won't get it...i'm straight.
It was a disease created by the government and they have the vaccine but they won't share it with the public
( seriously, I have heard people say thing)..NO joke.
Everyone has personal responsibility...if she had refused condoms...he should have given her her walking papers. He could have put the condoms on himself...but he didn't...
Besides, this is in Germany so they have universal healthcare and probably won't be incurring large costs.
My husband and I had been together for almost 20 years from the time that we were each in our very early 20s when he cheated on me and exposed me to the possibility of STDs, including HIV/AIDS.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I dodged a bullet, he was clean.
When is it safe to STOP using protection when you have sex? For me the answer to that question right now is never.
For this reason, I think that anyone who knowingly or irresponsibly exposes a sexual partner to a deadly or incurable STD should face prison time, no matter the length or nature of the relationship. (All my ex got was his walking papers.)
Sorry to be such a downer but this is real life threatening or at the least life altering stuff.
prison.
ReplyDeleteyes, its easy to say use a condom every time etc. but when you are in a relationship you have most likely had the std and diseases talk. they were together and a couple. i think that trusting someone you are in a relationship with is usually relationship 101. so he didnt wrap it.
too bad she turned out to be a murderous psychopath. there are no words to describe my anger and disgust at what she did.
She tested HIV+ in 1999 when she was 17 and then passed this on to three different men between 2004 - 2006 which was at least 5 years later.
ReplyDeleteThis was murder. She deserves a life sentence.
legally, i don't think they could charge her w/ manslaughter or murder until he is deceased.
ReplyDeletethat being said, i remember aids becoming a pandemic @ 1984, because that's when i was divorced from an amputee who, of course, had had blood transfusions and i became concerned.
anyway, i don't know anything about this case, and never heard of her, but by 1999, he was a huge idiot not to wrap it. i also know at one time it was believed that it could not be transmitted from women to men, but i think that was shot down LONG before '99.
@Jax & @Cheryl
ReplyDeleteKudos to you both for your strength, and I'm deeply sorry for your losses. I know it must have ripped you to shreads.
It's still a foreign concept to people who've never changed an adult diaper, cleared away the thrush, cried as encephalitis set in. It's a horrifying, wasting disease.
I'd like to see her do every bit of her community service in a palliative care home or a hospice for AIDS patients. Full frontal exposure to what may come for her victim - and herself. I'd also like to see her speak to high school students - every single day. All over the world.
I'm also reserving the right to keep cursing her.
If this was gender reversed I would be screaming reckless endangerment and I have to adopt that stance. Sure, everyone should be safe but ffs, if you've got a potentially fatal illness YOU HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE. If you have any STD and the other person doesn't know then you've robbed then of the chance to walk away. Wearing a condom is common sense, not the law. I wouldn't sleep with someone with HIV even WITH a condom, who the hell would? This chick robbed a guy of his health deliberately, and she should have been punished for it. You don't get to stab someone and go Oh sorry, I was a bit messed up at the time. People who infect people with life altering illnesses are no less criminals than those who maim or injure with a weapon.
ReplyDeleteVery sorry for everyone who has had a loved one die from this awful disease. Dee, excellent point about cheating in relationships. I had no idea what people went through until I read April Fools Day by Bryce Courtenay. It is about his son who was a haemophiliac and contracted AIDS through his transfusions. I originally thought jail, and then I thought it would be better for her to have to volunteer in a hospice and see what havoc she has wraught. I do believe it is murder when you are positive and don't tell.
ReplyDeleteShe should do jail time. She didn't tell her partners for selfish reasons. If she didn't want to tell them then she should have insisted on using protection. That would have at least shown some amount of concern for the guys she was with. Condoms help but they still aren't 100%, so while the guys should have worn a condom its still entirely her responsibility to either inform or protect them since she knew she was infected.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I find it interesting that when a gay person gets HIV, it is their own fault for not protecting themselves. But when a straight person gets HIV, it is the other persons fault and they should go to jail or prison or pay medical bills.
ReplyDeleteWhy should this young lady go to jail, and the guy who slept with her gets the martyr crown? If it was the other way around and he got her pregnant, who would be the martyr then and paying the bills?
The point is to take responsibilty for your own actions. There are a millions of people out there with STD's and you can bet their partner never told them about it. If we start jailing people for with holding information, the jails would be packed.
@Basil - can't speak for everyone, but I think ANYONE - male or female - that knowingly has HIV/AIDS and withholds it from his/her partner is a criminal and should be treated as such. I see nowhere in our comments suggesting that such punishment is for straight people only??
ReplyDeleteI agree the jails would be packed, but it's a CRIME nonetheless.
Dude should have worn a rubber. End of story.
ReplyDeleteJanet Charlton has a *MUCH* better take on the story.
http://www.janetcharltonshollywood.com/can-this-german-pop-star-find-justice-in-a-mans-world/
I think she should be obligated to tell him for the simple fact the condom could break and he deserves to know his full risk if something like that should happen. Then again, wearing a condom even without it breaking can't guarantee protection against stds.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm going to vote morally she should be obligated to tell him, legally she should not. What about her right to medical privacy? Yep, legally she should not. Morally, absolutely.
condoms can only protect someone so much from any disease. at the end of the day HE should have been given the decision of whether he wanted to risk his health for her. SHE doesn't get to decide for him. i could see him sleeping with her knowing her status and using condoms, knowing there's a huge risk if that condom breaks.
ReplyDeleteit's attempted murder and the bitch should rot in jail.
"Jennifer said...
ReplyDeleteI read about this on CNN. It also said that this was tried via juvenile courts because it happened when she was 17. She has been HIV+ since she was in her teens. I do feel that if this had been in the US, she would have gotten jail time. I believe there have been some cases in the US and the people got jail time. I'm also wondering if this is the person in the blind about the HIV+ pop singer. I know she isn't a big deal here, but apparently she is from the #1 pop group in Germany. "
She was tried in a juvenile court, because the first time she slept with a guy unprotected and didn't tell him, she was under 21. She was 22 when she infected another guy. Her HIV-infection was found out when she was pregnant and she was told she had 8 years to live, so she new full well in what risk she put others. She should have gotten jailtime. (The no angels are not the #1 popgroup here, they are one of those TV-casting-show groups, btw. They had some hits some years ago.)
Btw, in other cases men were sentenced to years of jail, another woman was sentenced to parole like her. Looks like bias to me.
Wow, I never knew there were HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeleteI say she should do some jail time and DEFINITELY community service.