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Scary! Not sure how I feel about it.. He did put his partner's life in danger by not disclosing that he's HIV positive...

This was a L&O SVU that covered this topic so I've thought about it before. And yes, I think it should be criminalized. You are knowingly putting someone else's life at risk.

@MrBee: what makes you say the attorney was awful?

@MsLipGloss: Was going mostly off these two snippets about his old attorney?

* Rhoades ended up pleading guilty. "I entered a guilty plea based on the advice of my attorney," he says. "I really didn't understand the law; I didn't understand it enough to know I shouldn't plead guilty."

* Rhoades' ... new lawyer, Scott Schoettes with Lambda Legal, has appealed his conviction to the Iowa Supreme Court. Schoettes says ... Rhoades' former attorney never explained to him that the statute requires proof that an HIV-positive person intentionally tried to infect the victim.

@MsLipGloss: I agree that what he did was very wrong. And you're totally right - I don't know nearly enough of the real facts to make a judgment call!

At the end of the day though, the other guy (Adam) didn't get HIV. I guess I just figured that a good attorney could have gotten him out of jail time (or at least, less than 25 years). But you're right, I have no real idea of how the attorney did in court.

Sorry, didn't mean to besmirch the attorney involved!

I thought this was illegal?

I think what he did should be illegal and he should be punished for it. And I agree that it seems like he's trying to redirect attention and look like a victim. The second I read (towards the end) that they had unprotected oral sex I was like wtf why are we feeling bad for him at all?! The article keeps repeating that a condom was used, which is a little more forgivable, but you have to read to the end to see that they had unprotected oral sex! I mean can you imagine? I'd want to lock him up too if he did that to me!

@MsLipGloss: If Jack McCoy had been the prosecutor, then he surely would have gone for the death penalty! So maybe 25 years was a gift after all!

Sorry, I know most lawyers hate L&O. I should ease up on the Dick Wolf references!

I'm coming from a weird place with my point of view, but I definitely think this should be considered a criminal action.

My biological father was a closeted homosexual who frequented male prostitutes while he was married to my mother without her knowledge (obviously). When I was ten he disapeered one day and my mother sent the police looking for him the whole nine yards. A month later my mother received a phone call from the NFLD provincial health authority telling her my father had full-blown AIDS and she had been exposed for the last 7 or so years. He ran away because he didn't want to face up to the fact that he potentially had served my mother and little sister (who was six) a death sentence as he had been aware of his status for YEARS and had couldn't hide being full-blown.

The weeks and months that followed while we waited to see if they had HIV were the worst of our lives. By some miracle my mother and sister were spared HIV, but that piece of garbage that fathered me should've gone to prison in my opinion- at the very least he was criminally negligent, at the most he's abhorrently sociopathic and shouldn't be allowed out in society.

So overall, any man or woman who does not disclose their status to people they are putting at risk deserve the full measure of the law- they're ruining people's lives and aren't worth the air they breathe. Anyone who disagrees should have to watch a six year old little girl or dedicated wife and mother wonder if she's going to live or die based on someone else's selfishness for six months- I sincerely doubt you'd feel bad for the perpetrators anymore.