Friday, August 24, 2012

Health Passport - Can it check STDs and STIs ?


While boarding my flight to Chicago, I was asked to show my passport. Your credentials are checked before you enter a new country. Your credentials are checked before entering so many places – bars, discotheques, private parties, conferences, airplanes, concerts. But has anyone asked you for your credential when you enter the most private party – the bed?

Hookups, one night stands, flings – call them what you please. Before getting into them, how often do we make sure that other person is healthy and fit for entering into this party? By making sure, I do not mean asking, “Hey, you are –ve, right?” or “You get tested regularly, do you?” and then believing her or him. By making sure, I mean literally verifying some kind of document that certifies that other person is fit for having physical person relationship  with another healthy person and if not, what precautions need to be observed while getting into physical union.

This brought me to think of a health card or health passport, that mentions my HIV and other STI/ STD status. A card that needs to be renewed every six months. A small passport that fits into wallet or purse. A card that is issued by government health agencies free of cost. A card that would be private property of  a person and no agency – private or public - could ask for it. All information would be strictly confidential with that person, unless she or he voluntarily shares.

Questions about plausibility of this idea.  Can it be an effective solution to check STDs and STIs ? When you meet someone in a bar and after many drinks, if you get cozy with someone, would you stop and check her/his health passport? When such a program is launched, folks won’t sign up for it overnight and people won’t get tested and certified in no time. So will men and women have patience? Is such a card relevant to people of all sexual orientation? Will it also be relevant to the physical reunions that  place after few dates and days of platonic interactions and not on first meeting or through a sex website or mobile app. You already know quite a lot about the other person – his/her family, education back grounds, likes and dislikes. So would it be appropriate to ask for her/his health passport before moving  the transactions from platonic to carnal?

Comments invited!

2 comments:

Evan Ettinghoff said...

This would be great, but there's no way of knowing who the person slept with since the last time they got their card renewed! A lot of STD's can be contracted in 6 months...

Hisenberg said...

Rajeev I don't have much experience but health passport seem retrograde at first glance. Isn't it similar to 15th century notion of seclusion the lepers?

With the introduction of health passport you risk total destruction of the art of seduction. Why stop only at health then, check credit and criminal history as well, far easier thing to implement.

I believe love should involve fall, else we would be reduced to animals.