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Idaho Code § 39-608

Transfer of body fluid which may contain the HIV virus — Punishment — Definitions — Defenses

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case State v. Lewis (1993)

Most recently applied in Thomas v. State (January 2017)

I.C., § 39-608, as added by 1988, ch. 151, § 1, p. 271.

How often courts cite this section

199320002010201720
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) Any person who exposes another in any manner with the intent to infect or, knowing that he or she is or has been afflicted with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), AIDS related complexes (ARC), or other manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, transfers or attempts to transfer any of his or her body fluid, body tissue or organs to another person is guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a period not to exceed fifteen (15) years, by fine not in excess of five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by both such imprisonment and fine.

(2) Definitions. As used in this section: “Body fluid” means semen (irrespective of the presence of spermatozoa), blood, saliva, vaginal secretion, breast milk, and urine.

(3) “Transfer” means engaging in sexual activity by genital-genital contact, oral-genital contact, anal-genital contact; or permitting the use of a hypodermic syringe, needle, or similar device without sterilization; or giving, whether or not for value, blood, semen, body tissue, or organs to a person, blood bank, hospital, or other medical care facility for purposes of transfer to another person.

(4) Defenses: Consent. It is an affirmative defense that the sexual activity took place between consenting adults after full disclosure by the accused of the risk of such activity.

(5) Medical advice. It is an affirmative defense that the transfer of body fluid, body tissue, or organs occurred after advice from a licensed physician that the accused was noninfectious.

Current official text: Idaho Statutes (Idaho Legislature). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Idaho statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.