Should people with STIs/STDs be tattooed?

[michel]

I think the plan in the OP would discourage people from checking to see if they are HIV positive.

I agree; the other point I would make is that we have seen a case where someone has actually apparently been HIV, and is now (apparently) cured ............What would you do then ? removing tatoos is painful, expensive and leaves scarring.

I don't know why, but I have a chill at the thought.........reminds me of the days of the plague in London, where, apparently people's doors were maked, if someone believed a member of the household suffered fro the plague.......having to walk down the road, ringing a bell to warn people that a sick person was about........

 

[Faint]

The government should not be allowed to make public things that one should be able to keep private if that's their wish.

Again, you seem to have missed or forgotten reading the part where I said the tattoo would be out of sight to the general public. I'm sorry, is your genital region often on display when you go out on the town?? Mine sure isn't. Even at the beach, it is hidden by swim trunks or a wetsuit.

The government is not there to protect people from stupidity (i.e. having sex with someone if you don't know their health status and don't bother to find out).

Tell me, what is stupid about a girl in high school who falls for a guy who she thinks is really great and has no reason to suspect he might lie to her, so they start a relationship, and then after a few months start having sex and she still trusts him, and continue dating for over a year, after which she starts taking the pill and they continue dating for two and a half years, during which time the really nice sweet guy had failed to mention that he once slept with a girl at a party somewhere without using a condom and caught HIV and then passed it on to this high school girl who trusted him, but he never had the courage (or decency) to tell her the truth (because apparently he thought she would not want to be with him) and the girl had to find out from a blood test she had while checking for something unrelated?

This is a true story by the way.

Do you screen all your partners with blood tests Aqua? Is it stupid to trust people or is that part of the problem--that ultimately you can't trust anyone 100%.

 

[SoyLeche]

Again, you seem to have missed or forgotten reading the part where I said the tattoo would be out of sight to the general public. I'm sorry, is your genital region often on display when you go out on the town?? Mine sure isn't. Even at the beach, it is hidden by swim trunks or a wetsuit.

Tell me, what is stupid about a girl in high school who falls for a guy who she thinks is really great and has no reason to suspect he might lie to her, so they start a relationship, and then after a few months start having sex and she still trusts him, and continue dating for over a year, after which she starts taking the pill and they continue dating for two and a half years, during which time the really nice sweet guy had failed to mention that he once slept with a girl at a party somewhere without using a condom and caught HIV and then passed it on to this high school girl who trusted him, but he never had the courage (or decency) to tell her the truth (because apparently he thought she would not want to be with him) and the girl had to find out from a blood test she had while checking for something unrelated?

This is a true story by the way.

Do you screen all your partners with blood tests Aqua? Is it stupid to trust people or is that part of the problem--that ultimately you can't trust anyone 100%.

That's a terrible story, and I like DarkDale's idea of charging the guy with murder, or at least attempted murder.

And, no I don't screan my partner's with blood tests, but since I've only had one, and so has she, I think we're good.

 

[Green Gaia]

Tell me, what is stupid about a girl in high school who falls for a guy who she thinks is really great and has no reason to suspect he might lie to her, so they start a relationship, and then after a few months start having sex and she still trusts him, and continue dating for over a year, after which she starts taking the pill and they continue dating for two and a half years, during which time the really nice sweet guy had failed to mention that he once slept with a girl at a party somewhere without using a condom and caught HIV and then passed it on to this high school girl who trusted him, but he never had the courage (or decency) to tell her the truth (because apparently he thought she would not want to be with him) and the girl had to find out from a blood test she had while checking for something unrelated?

And you think tattooing people is going to stop that from happening? No! If anything, it will happen more often because people are not going to get tested if they know they will be branded in their genital region if their test(s) comes back positive.

And yes, ask for blood tests from every partner and get yours done as well. Besides abstaining from sex it's the only way to protect yourself.

 

[Faint]

Instead of spending all this money on tattoos. why not use that money to help find a cure? Just a thought. And remember, until a cure is found. love is the best medicine.

The cure you're talking about still hasn't been found. How many more people need to be infected while waiting for research to cure this problem? I agree research should continue, but meanwhile, we can't just sit around and wait for science to fix everything. It's like obese people waiting for some kind of diet miracle drug--we might find one some day, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise and eat properly in the meantime.

 

[SoyLeche]

The cure you're talking about still hasn't been found. How many more people need to be infected while waiting for research to cure this problem? I agree research should continue, but meanwhile, we can't just sit around and wait for science to fix everything. It's like obese people waiting for some kind of diet miracle drug--we might find one some day, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise and eat properly in the meantime.

Yeah, we should somehow get the government to make them exercise and eat properly

 

[standing_alone]

The cure you're talking about still hasn't been found. How many more people need to be infected while waiting for research to cure this problem? I agree research should continue, but meanwhile, we can't just sit around and wait for science to fix everything. It's like obese people waiting for some kind of diet miracle drug--we might find one some day, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise and eat properly in the meantime.

If this HIV/AIDS branding were to become the law of the land, that would be money spent on it that could have went to cure research. Instead of turning people into social outcasts, we should spend our money on researching and developing a cure, not taking money that could be going to it to give someone a tattoo. And with your dieting analogy: It's the dieting person that is taking responsibility for their actions by excercising and eating healthy, etc. Just as anyone deciding to have sexual relations should go about ways to protect themselves. People don't need to see a tattoo on somebody to know what the risk is everytime they get in the sack with somebody.

 

[Faint]

And you think tattooing people is going to stop that from happening? No! If anything, it will happen more often because people are not going to get tested if they know they will be branded in their genital region if their test(s) comes back positive.

And yes, ask for blood tests from every partner and get yours done as well. Besides abstaining from sex it's the only way to protect yourself.

If this guy had been registered and forced to get tattooed at the time he was told that he was positive, then yes, I think this could have been prevented. And people can be persuaded to be tested regularly if we set strict penalties for those who don't. For example, let's say the gov'ment sets a new rule that everyone needs to submit a health report of themself once a year, or every six months (or even monthly depending on how serious we want to get with ending this problem). Like paying taxes (as I mentioned earlier)--no one wants to do it, but they also don't want the huge fines or prison terms that come with not doing it. Most of us here register our vehicles once a year--why not have a "body" registration along with it. It's time to start moving forward, people. Think outside the box.

 

[standing_alone]

For example, let's say the gov'ment sets a new rule that everyone needs to submit a health report of themself once a year, or every six months

This sounds very authoritarian to me - and very intrusive. People know what the risks are. Sometimes people just need to be responsible for themselves. People will still have sexual relations regardless of the tattoos - what is someone is really drunk and totally forgets to check for the tattoo? Then what? Maybe they should have took responsibility for their actions - and if they did do that, no need for a tattoo!

 

[Green Gaia]

For example, let's say the gov'ment sets a new rule that everyone needs to submit a health report of themself once a year, or every six months .

Well, now you've really gone off the deep end. No one is going to go for that. What about people's civil liberties and right to privacy in matters of personal health?

 

[Mike182]

Gay is trendy (at least in California), but trend is not the cause, no.

#19? I don't see how this point of yours is worth arguing. Do you think we should build laws around what children will or will not make fun of? If I recall my grade school days, I remember that a) kids will make fun of other kids for something as trivial as a weird sounding last name, and b) none of my schools required showering naked with other boys anyway--maybe that practice should be discontinued itself, but that's another topic.

you are missing the point entirely - if a kid is marked (and yes, kids can catch HIV from their mother) then other kids will find out about it, its inevitable, and when they do, the kids life will become a living hell - what you are saying is that you can permanantley mark someone, but expect it to not affect their life - i am saying it will completely affect their life

this reminds me soo much of the apartide systems we have seen throughout history - seperate the good from the bad - majority rule leads to a crap society

 

[painted wolf]

Chicken pox and mono are both potentally fatal...

Dangerous skin infections also can occur. Before the introduction of the vaccine, about 100,000 people were hospitalized and 100 people in the United States died each year of chickenpox, most of them previously healthy children. Adolescents and adults who develop chickenpox are also at high risk of developing serious complications.

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/9339/9704.html

Mono can kill as well.. it can rupture the spleen, or block the airways, cause siezures, aniemia and so on. It isn't harmless. It can last for a year, so it isn't nessisarily very quick either.
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/16277-7.asp

What about the 'silent eppidemic' that is Hep.C very easily transmitted it kills by distroying the liver and other organs. Millions may have this disease and not know it.. and be spreading it. It spreads quite easily in much the same way as AIDS but it is longer lived outside the body and more infectious. Anyone who got a blood transfusion before 1992 is at risk of being a carrier.
http://www.hopkinshospital.org/health_info/Infectious_Diseases/reading/hep_c.html

a disease doesn't have to be long-term to kill you. Remember Influenza? 36,000 people died in the US last year from the flu... compair that to AIDS which killed 15,000 people in the US.
Frankly any disease is likely fatal... thats why its a disease.
Perhaps some sort of temporary tattoo or quarantine is in order?

tattoing sufferers of illness for being ill is Orwellian at best, a blatent violation of human rights and a pointless gesture of neurotic paranoia at worst.

and I have had my own brushes with both AIDS and Hep C. when I was born I needed two major blood transfusions due to an Rh issue between my mother and myself. This was in the late 70's no one checked blood for any contagious illnesses. I'm lucky I missed catching AIDS in this way, Ryan White was not so fortunate he had recieved blood (being a hemopheliac he needed it often) around the same time period I did and he lost his roll of the cosmic dice. He went through hell trying to help educate people about the realities of AIDS. He was attacked, both verbaly, socially and physically for being known as an AIDS carrier. I can't imagine the additional horror of having to be publicly branded with a "scarlet letter" as some suggest.
At the time Morality wasn't an issue in our lives, it was luck.

wa:do

 

[Faint]

If this HIV/AIDS branding were to become the law of the land, that would be money spent on it that could have went to cure research. Instead of turning people into social outcasts, we should spend our money on researching and developing a cure, not taking money that could be going to it to give someone a tattoo. And with your dieting analogy: It's the dieting person that is taking responsibility for their actions by excercising and eating healthy, etc. Just as anyone deciding to have sexual relations should go about ways to protect themselves. People don't need to see a tattoo on somebody to know what the risk is everytime they get in the sack with somebody.

Is there an echo in here? We have been researching a cure for over two decades--where is it? What if there is no cure? All that money down the drain...
What if the real cure is for humanity to take responsibility for its own safety and identify contagious individuals so we know who not to have sex with? Condoms break. My suggestion is simply a way to reduce the risks that are already there.

My dieting analogy didn't go over well apparently. What I meant was that the obese person is like our population--waiting for science to fix something we don't like about ourselves. And yes, just as a fat man/woman can get up and do something about his/her weight, so can humans take action to do something about a disease that has continued spreading.

Besides, considering our national debt, and how all the money our gov'ment spends is more or less fictional anyway, there will still be plenty of "money" to continue research.

 

[standing_alone]

What if the real cure is for humanity to take responsibility for its own safety

Definately, and this can already be done - without the tattoos! People know the risks! We don't need to start branding people.

 

[Mike182]

Is there an echo in here? We have been researching a cure for over two decades--where is it? What if there is no cure? All that money down the drain...
What if the real cure is for humanity to take responsibility for its own safety and identify contagious individuals so we know who not to have sex with? Condoms break. My suggestion is simply a way to reduce the risks that are already there.

My dieting analogy didn't go over well apparently. What I meant was that the obese person is like our population--waiting for science to fix something we don't like about ourselves. And yes, just as a fat man/woman can get up and do something about his/her weight, so can humans take action to do something about a disease that has continued spreading.

Besides, considering our national debt, and how all the money our gov'ment spends is more or less fictional anyway, there will still be plenty of "money" to continue research.

d'ya know what, i give in, i really do

you aren't gonna change your view, im not gonna change mine, however, what you suggest is simply a fundamental violation of basic human rights, and will never be introduced to either the US or europe (and hopefully no where else in the world) - i see no further need to debate

blessed be

 

[mr.guy]

Is there an echo in here? We have been researching a cure for over two decades--where is it? What if there is no cure? All that money down the drain...
What if the real cure is for humanity to take responsibility for its own safety and identify contagious individuals so we know who not to have sex with? Condoms break. My suggestion is simply a way to reduce the risks that are already there.

Then certainly, you'll be open to straight out killing known HIV carriers? Saves money; no more wasting funds researching a cure or supplying costly drug cocktails to prolong the lives of what are inevitably sickly, useless people. Would be far more effective then you're banal tattooing campaign, as a dead and buried person would be personally unable to transmit the disease (it would only become the virus of necropheliacs). Can you possibly disagree with this in the interest of public good and viral containment?

 

[Faint]

Then certainly, you'll be open to straight out killing known HIV carriers? Saves money; no more wasting funds researching a cure or supplying costly drug cocktails to prolong the lives of what are inevitably sickly, useless people. Would be far more effective then you're banal tattooing campaign, as a dead and buried person would be personally unable to transmit the disease (it would only become the virus of necropheliacs). Can you possibly disagree with this in the interest of public good and viral containment?

Don't be ridiculous. That would just be immoral.

 

[mr.guy]

That would just be immoral.

How so?

 

[Faint]

How so?

Oh, I think you know. So there you go.

 

[mr.guy]

Can you not explain, Faint? If you find branding up the sick for your convenience necessary, wouldn't disposing of them entirely be more efficient? We are talking about the public good here, aren't we?