HIV/AIDS on trial

There is an interesting trial underway at the moment in the South Australian Supreme Court in which a man who was convicted of endangering the lives of three former girlfriends by having sex with them when he knew he was HIV positive is appealing against his conviction.

What’s interesting about the case is that part of the argument involves assertions that there is no link between HIV and AIDS, that HIV cannot be transmitted via heterosexual intercouse, and, in fact, that HIV doesn’t exist at all. The ‘expert’ witnesses for the appellant come from this lobby group, located in Perth and imaginatively called “the Perth Group”, who have spent three weeks telling the court that HIV in effect does not exist. This must be heartening news for the 40 million or so people who ignorantly contracted the disease before this information was revealed to them.

The Supreme Court heard from an expert witness for the prosecution that the Perth Group are ‘semi-professional’ and hold views which are extreme even for ‘AIDS denialists.’ Another expert has described the group as relying on ‘dinosaur’ evidence in making their claims.

The Perth Group seems to like dressing itself up in the role of a crusader for the truth, fighting against a sea of ignorance (in the form of mainstream medical science). Their home page contains an inspirational quote from Alexis de Tocqueville, and this passage from The Australian’s article is amusing:

Perth Group member Val Turner said on Friday he was walking in the footsteps of scientific mavericks such as Galileo, who was imprisoned by the Catholic Church for his espousal of the sun-centred solar system. Professor Moore said this was “bullshit”.

More seriously though, the Group seems to be part of the growing trend for any view, no matter how outlandish, to be legitimised as part of a scientific ‘debate.’ For example, according to some, there’s no such thing as the greenhouse effect, it’s just that the sun is getting hotter (but doesn’t everyone know that global warming is caused by a decline in the number of pirates?). Of course, it helps that science is no longer limited to the search for ‘natural’ explanations of phenomena…

Meanwhile in the Supreme Court, Justice Sulan has deferred a decision as to whether the Perth Group’s evidence should be accepted as valid expert evidence until the close of the prosecution case.