The criminal prosecution of persons living with
HIV (PLWH) for HIV exposure, nondisclosure, and
transmission is a structural policy practice that should
be a major concern for nurses and other health care
professionals. There are three major areas of law
that influence a nurse’s practice in a context of HIV
criminalization: HIV-related criminal laws, public
health laws (e.g., contagious disease reporting), and
laws that establish practice authority (e.g., nurse practice
acts). Many nurses may perceive that these laws
are no longer at issue because of the biomedical
advances that have transformed HIV into a manageable
chronic illness. However, for PLWH, the reality
is that, ‘‘It is a terrible irony that we [PLWH] have
come to a place where the medications we fought
for will allow us to live a relatively normal quality
of life, and now we are going to go to jail for doing
so’’ (Binder, 2012).
Currently, Canada and the United States are world
leaders for prosecuting PLWH (Global Network of
People Living with HIV/AIDS & HIV Justice
Network, 2013). Nurses have tremendous responsibility
in a context of HIV criminalization. They are
uniquely situated within the health care system to
be called upon by both patients and the legal system
to provide information that can influence prosecutorial
decisions and advocate for change, if not repeal,
of HIV-specific criminal legislation. PLWH, as
patients, rely on nurses’ knowledge and competence
to manage the challenges they face related to HIV
through a therapeutic alliance founded on mutual
respect and trust. Nurses can be called upon by the
legal system to provide expert testimony, and their
documentation has been and can be used as evidence
in criminal prosecutions of PLWH. Nurses as advocates
for changing legal processes can provide
a medical expert affidavit on HIV transmission for
HIV-specific court cases