Deliberately Spreading Death
BEFORE AIDS kills its victims, it bestows upon them a dreadful responsibility: a power of life or death over others. Many AIDS sufferers act responsibly, denying themselves any act that might infect another. But a dangerous few decide differently.
A psychiatrist in Washington, D.C., wrote of a frightening example—one of her own patients: “A deeply disturbed bisexual AIDS victim is, I fear, deliberately trying to infect other people with his disease. He knows it could kill them.” He told her: “At first when I found out I had AIDS I decided not to have sex with anyone, and then I just got angry and said: Let’s conquer the world.” What did he mean?
The psychiatrist explains: “He told me that sometimes when he got angry with someone, an inner voice told him, ‘Let’s get this guy’ and he would try to have sex with him. He also said he was living with a bisexual man who was promiscuous with women.” The psychiatrist tried to persuade officials to confine this dangerous man but to no avail. “When I last saw him,” she writes, “his behavior was unchanged, and I have no reason to doubt that it is any different today.”
A unique case? Sadly, no. One man was dubbed Patient Zero by the Centers for Disease Control because of his key role in the early spread of AIDS in the United States. Even after he knew he was endangering the lives of others, he continued to have homosexual contact with some 250 partners a year. Women have complained of mates who kept their bisexuality a secret. Drug users continue to share their used and contaminated needles and so have become the largest group of new AIDS victims in several countries.
As disturbing as all of this is, it comes as no surprise to students of the Bible. That ancient book long ago foretold that people of this troubled generation would be “lovers of themselves . . . having no natural affection.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5) That time has certainly come. Those who ignore God’s laws on morality have always offended the Author of those laws, our Creator. That is the worst risk one can take in life. But today the same disobedience often brings an added risk: entrusting one’s very life to people who value nothing more than their own pleasure.