Giovanni Mola, 38, who claimed to have had 200 lovers, refused to wear condoms after starting a relationship with the woman in Edinburgh in 2003. His lover is now infected.
We have argued for several years that the AIDS epidemic can be brought to a rapid halt by publicizing the names of those infected with AIDS/HIV. The counterargument is that the infected parties would be subject to unnecessary embarrassment by having their right to privacy violated.
When we discussed the issue on the “Dallas Examiner Live” radio show, uninfected callers unanimously wanted the infection information and infected callers unanimously opposed it. Upon close questioning, one caller observed that public knowledge of his infected status would unnecessarily limit his access to potential sexual partners.
We have always been troubled by the “privacy” right that has appeared in US law during the past 50 years. The US Supreme Court has given privacy legal legitimacy through an expansive reading of the Constitution, most notably in the “penumbras, formed by emanations” ruling of Justice William O. Douglas in Griswold v. Connecticut.
When The Open Records Project first posted the sex offender names online, we were deluged by attorneys claiming we violated their client’s right to “privacy.”
In our experience, the “privacy” defense is often used to cover up government malfeasance, criminal wrongdoing, and now sexual manslaughter.
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