Society generally expects people to pick up the tab for their sex lives. For example, noncustodial parents have to make child support payments, even if they did not seek a divorce, and did not do anything wrong during the marriage.

The same principle of picking up the tab should apply to giving your partner AIDS. For example, if you know you have AIDS, and you give AIDS to your partner, who doesn’t know you have AIDS, you should have to compensate them for their medical expenses and lost wages. In most states, you can already sue your ex-partner under such circumstances.

In a minority of states, you could not (at least until recently) sue if you contracted AIDS from a non-marital relationship, because the courts said it violated public policy to allow you to sue over an illegal act (non-marital sex was illegal).

That minority view, barring any compensation against a non-marital partner, strikes me as wrongheaded and narrow minded in many ways.

First, it conflicts with Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which struck down state laws banning non-marital sex), as the Virginia Supreme Court recognized in 2005 in abrogating this rule.

Second, it defies common sense, since it effectively encourages deceit and reckless behavior by people who are promiscuous and lie about it to their partner.

Third, it has discriminatory effects, since it bars claims by people, even those in what they thought was a monogamous relationship, simply because they could NOT legally marry (gay people, who cannot marry in most states, would be barred from receiving any compensation by this rule, even in cases of egregious deception and medical harm).