Mary-

I appreciate the comments. I don't know if I would go as far as to imply that my [non-infected] students "... continue to go through life, and blood-drawing aikido practice, in a state of dangerous ignorance." That seems pretty judgmental at least. If you wish to critique my directions please direct you comments towards me. My students are some of the best and well-educated people I know, many who possess some level of medical training. They understand the reasons under which I ask them to train and why I ask them to do so.

My conservative stance is because I do not believe it to be fair to direct the majority to assume the individuals with whom they are training are infectious or pose a risk to their safety. I believe students put their trust in me that I will minimize the risk of injury to them when they train. Because I have that trust we can safely train very hard.

I apologize for the thread drift. My original point was to state that we are responsible for the risks we bring into the dojo. We are also responsible for any... corrective measures than are required to maintain a safe training environment. I did not intend to start a PC debate over a specific risk. I believe the HIV debate has several threads elsewhere that are probably better for those who wish to continue that debate.