Reflection 5

I think that this initiative is great. Firstly, it will act as a deterent for people who engage in high-risk sexual activities without first checking whether they are HIV positive or not. By doing so, it will greatly reduce the number of HIV cases in Singapore. HIV is a very powerful and deadly virus, and I think this change would impact the society greatly.

Secondly, I think that with this new initiative, people will be much more aware of the dangers as well as the consequences of engaging in high-risk sexual activities, since fine is a major psychological factor. Thus, this would cause more people to go for regular HIV checkups, and I think that this would also greatly decrease the number of HIV cases in Singapore.

Mr Koh Peng Keng, senior director of operations of the ministy of health put it very well and said 'It's very easy to hide behind the veneer of 'I don't know'... but that's not a good-enough excuse. This law is to say: You have a responsibility to whoever you have sexual intercourse with, that you don't pass HIV to him or her.' I liked what he said and I certainly agree to it. I think that he brought up a very good point, that is people usually give the excuse of 'I don't know' when charged for engaging in high-risk sexual activities when they have HIV. I think that this is very irresponsible, as it shows that you do not care about the well-being of your partner, engaging in such activities without 'reasonable precautions' like wearing a condom, since you know that there is a RISK of you having HIV.

Thus I think that with the implementation of this law, people would have to be more responsible for what they do especially when it is life threatening, not only for themselves but also for their partners.

However, although I think that this new initiative is great, but i find that it is somewhat harsh, since the maximum penalty is now $50,000 fine and 10 years' jail, just because you did not take simple precautions. Though I know the reason for this is to make it a strong deterrent, but humans being humans, might sometimes be lazy and assume themselves to be HIV-negative since they do not usually engage in high-risk sexual activities, and have sex with their partners, only to end up breaking the law.

This problem lies with human nature, something that is hard to change, thus I think that it will be hard to solve directly, but other methods such as giving incentives for HIV screening could be implemented to encourage regular HIV checkups