I feel that the practice widely used by life insurance companies of penalising those who have simply had a test for HIV should be legislated against by the Government.

Surely all it does is to cause the virus to spread more rapidly than it otherwise would by putting people off being tested who may have tested positive.

I understand that the reason companies adopt this policy is that they claim people having such a test are "at risk". This is as ridiculous as if they were to penalise someone who has a cholesterol count on the grounds that the person is therefore "at risk" of having a heart attack.

Richard Hemingway,

Custance Walk,

Nunnery Lane,

York.

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