Abstinence Bush Admin's Answer to AIDS

[Agathon]

No it isn't. Married women are getting it because their husbands have been visiting hookers. Women are forced into prostitution through economic circumstances and are getting it because they don't know about safe sex.

Normal people can't avoid having sex in the same way they can't avoid eating. Of course, some people would have us believe that you are somehow morally responsible for your infection if you catch a stomach bug from food you had good reason to believe was safe.

Fifteen years ago I thought that some conservatives didn't care about AIDS because homosexuals were getting it. Now I realize that they don't care if anyone gets it other than themselves.

[David Floyd]

Of course the Bush administration doesn't care about the suffering caused by AIDS because they seem to think it is better to endorse a solution that is proven to be useless instead of doing what will actually minimize suffering.

Actually, abstinence IS a proven 100% effective strategy to avoid catching an STD.

The US government isn't handing out condoms for free? I'm sorry, I didn't realize the US had an obligation to do so. Besides, giving away free condoms simply creates another victim - the US taxpayer.

The Bush Administration is simply saying that the US will not give away condoms for free, which is perfectly legitimate, and instead, is provided advice which, if followed will virtually eliminate the spread of AIDs. If, HYPOTHETICALLY, everyone stuck to one sexual partner - their husband/wife - then the spread of AIDs would nosedive.

Is it likely that people in Africa will take this advice? Not particularly. But whose fault is that?

Oh, and Agathon? Crime IS the fault and responsibility of the criminals!

[David Floyd]

No it isn't. Married women are getting it because their husbands have been visiting hookers.

What's your point? If the husbands didn't visit hookers, it wouldn't be a problem. Yes, the fact that men visit hookers isn't the fault of their wives, but then again, it certainly isn't my fault. The solution to stopping the spread of AIDs is abstinence until marriage - and I freely admit that won't 100% eliminate AIDs, but it will at least GREATLY restrict the spread of it, assuming both partners are faithful. What an unreasonable ideal

Women are forced into prostitution through economic circumstances and are getting it because they don't know about safe sex.

No, women are getting AIDs because they have unprotected sex with multiple people in high risk environments. Being poor doesn't give them an excuse for being stupid.

Normal people can't avoid having sex in the same way they can't avoid eating. Of course, some people would have us believe that you are somehow morally responsible for your infection if you catch a stomach bug from food you had good reason to believe was safe.

What idiot believes that it's safe to have sex in Thailand or sub-Saharan Africa? If I catch something from food that's been sitting out for a week, it damn well is my fault.

Edit: Bolded the above text because it points out the true idiocy of Agathon's argument.

[Agathon]

What kind of idiot believes that all Thais and Africans should stop having sex?

You need to get out for a change.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Kucinich
As deaths go, AIDS isn't particularly hellish.

You've no idea what you're talking about. Ever seen anyone dying from AIDS?

[St Leo]

Originally posted by David Floyd What idiot believes that it's safe to have sex in Thailand or sub-Saharan Africa? If I catch something from food that's been sitting out for a week, it damn well is my fault.

The kind of "idiot" that can't move to a different country just to have sex.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Do yourself and us a big fat favour- shut the f*ck up about a subject on which you are painfully ill-informed and clearly too emotionally immature to deal with.

Ebola?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
But I guess getting infected by Malaria is your own fault too?

it's extremely easy to keep yourself from getting AIDS, not so for malaria.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
You've no idea what you're talking about. Ever seen anyone dying from AIDS?

I'm comparing it to Ebola.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Kucinich
I'm comparing it to Ebola.

No, you were saying it's not a particularly "hellish" disease. The sentence I quoted above is saying rather explicitely that AIDS isn't that bad.

It IS hellish, and I know people who have been through it, both dead and alive. Frankly, for Africans who don't have access to medical care, Ebola would be better. At least that's over in a matter of days. AIDS takes a lot longer to kill, and it does so in a horrific way.

[KrazyHorse]

By the time you get to the point where your organs have liquefied you're almost certainly in the grips of fever-induced dementia anyway.

I don't know how painful Ebola actually is, especially given the rapidity of progression.

There are certain modes of death among AIDS patients on the other hand which can last for months and which leave the victim conscious of his physical state and imminent demise the entire time.

The best thing you can hope for with AIDS is that you catch some sort of respiratory disease which ravages your lungs in a matter of days, giving you pneumonia and leaving you to die from drowning on your own mucus.

[Kuciwalker]

Whatever. I concede the point. It doesn't matter either way, really*

*in terms of the argument

[KrazyHorse]

Tell that to a 14 year-old Thai hooker dying of AIDS because there weren't enough condoms to go around due to money being spent on a Catholic priest who told her to just say no to premarital sex.

[Kuciwalker]

Did you notice the asterisk? It's not relevant to the debate, the seriousness of the disease. The only reason it came up at all was because I was nitpicking.

[Agathon]

Have you ever seen anyone die from a painful terminal illness, K?

I suggest you do, before you start making such ridiculous and barbaric assertions.