Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...The Legislature finds that the incidence of sexually transmissible diseases is rising at an alarming rate and that these diseases result in significant social, health, and economic costs, including infant and maternal mortality, temporary and lifelong disability, and premature death. § 384.22, Fla....

...tort here at issue, particularly in light of our legislature’s declaration that “sexually transmissible diseases constitute a serious and sometimes fatal threat to the public and individual health and welfare of the people of the state and to visitors to the state.” § 384.22, Fla....

...There are obvious and important differences between sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancies that go to term, and abortions. These differences logically account for the differential statutory treatment. a. Sexually transmitted diseases are by definition contagious. See § 384.22, Fla....

...In other words, criminal statutes are not to be so strictly construed as to emasculate the statute and defeat the obvious intention of the legislature. Section 384.24(2) falls within chapter 384, which is entitled the Control of Sexually Transmissible Disease Act. § 384.21, Fla. Stat. (2008). Section 384.22 sets forth the Legislature’s intent in enacting chapter 384: 384.22....

...legislative intent behind the statute. Chapter 384 is known as the “Control of Sexually Transmissible Disease Act.” § 384.21, Fla. Stat. (2011). It is contained within Title XXIX of the Florida Statutes, which is titled “Public Health.” Section 384.22 explicitly sets forth the legislative intent and purpose of the Act as follows: The Legislature finds and declares that sexually transmissible diseases constitute a serious and sometimes fatal threat to the public...

...sufficiently flexible to meet emerging needs, deals efficiently and effectively with reducing the incidence of sexually transmissible diseases, and provides patients with a secure knowledge that information they provide will remain private and confidential. § 384.22, Fla....

...Nothing in the statutory text or context indicates that the Legislature intended to reduce the incidence of HIV only among those who partake exclusively in heterosexual penile-vaginal intercourse while allowing the incidence of HIV to continue to “ris[e] at an alarming rate,” section 384.22, Florida Statutes, among those engaging in penile-anal or penile-oral intercourse with a member of the same or opposite sex....

...in order to arrive at a construction which avoids illogical results”). Chapter 384, of which section 384.24(2) is a part, is titled the “Control of Sexually Transmissible Disease Act” and addresses the threat to the public posed by sexually transmitted diseases. § 384.21, Fla. Stat. (2011); § 384.22, Fla....

...le, lympho-granuloma venereum, genital herpes simplex, chlamydia, nongonococcal urethritis (NGU), pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)/acute salpingitis, syphilis, [and] human immune deficiency virus infection [HIV].” § 384.23(3), Fla. Stat. (2011). Section 384.22 states as the Act’s purpose the intent to reduce the spread of these diseases: Findings; intent....

...The Legislature intends to provide a program that is sufficiently flexible to meet emerging needs, deals efficiently and effectively with reducing the incidence of sexually transmissible diseases, and provides patients with a secure knowledge that information they provide will remain private and confidential. § 384.22, Fla....

...There are obvious and important differences between sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancies that go to term, and abortions. These differences logically account for the differential statutory treatment. a. Sexually transmitted diseases are by definition contagious. See § 384.22, Fla....