Ethics and Religion Talk: Does My Car Insurance Cover STDs?

Question: If the driver's behavior causes bodily harm to a passenger should the insurance company be on the hook for the damages? She is suing his auto insurance company because she got a sexually transmitted disease while in his car. The auto insurance ignored the claim and now they are ordered to pay 5 million.

The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister at All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, responds:

“I do not think anyone could have envisioned this particular scenario when writing the insurance policy's limitations on damages and responsibilities. That being said the insurance company needs to take the claim seriously before it gets to this level.

“It seems to me that this is an issue around consent. If the plaintiff consented to having unprotected sex with the driver/owner of the car then the responsibility for damages does not fall on the insurance company. She did leave herself vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases. The plaintiff could try to sue the driver for not disclosing his health status truthfully and perhaps that is also happening. A sad state of affairs.”

Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, responds:

“Nothing in my portfolio entitles me to weigh in on the legal aspects of this case. We shall have to await the decision of the courts. It is difficult to sympathize with GEICO or any other insurance company, since they work so hard to protect their big fat bottom line. Sadly the costs imposed on the company will no doubt be taken of the pockets of the other drivers they insure, not from the dividend checks paid to their investors.

“As a minister of the Word, I must say that both M.O and M.B. are at fault for having unprotected sex, whether in an automobile or not. It seems to have been a casual and/or furtive encounter. If you are going to engage in risky behavior, you should find out what the risks are, to yourself and others. There is plenty of help on line about HPV and other STDs, and both parties should have been forewarned and forearmed. Ignorance is bliss, but only until the facts of the situation come to light, one way or another.

“I am reminded of Psalm 107:17-20: ‘Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw nigh the gates of death. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their distresses. He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.’ Such are the dire consequences of human folly, but thankfully such also is the infinite grace and mercy shown to all who call upon the Lord.”

Fred Stella, the Pracharak (Outreach Minister) for the West Michigan Hindu Temple, responds:

“This is an absurdity. Whatever the legal outcome, I would certainly side with the insurance company in this instance. Think of all of the STDs that are transmitted in homes, hotel rooms, rented apartments, etc. We presume that all are covered by insurance. Are we to think that insurers will now be overwhelmed by lawsuits because people engaged in consensual sex? Perhaps there exists a small opening in the contract that lawyers are exploiting for this matter. But legality is not always morality. It would not surprise me if Geico ends up settling this out of court to make it go away for less money than is on the table now. I would hope that this does go before a jury trial, and that the plaintiff is denied.”

My response:

Whether the insurance company is liable is a matter of civil law, not religious-based ethics. I find it puzzling that any judge would rule against an insurance company in this matter, but then again, I don’t read all of the fine print of most of the contracts I sign. I expect that both I and the company behave with reason. And yes, I am naïve.

I expect that Geico and other insurance companies will be amending their contracts to explicitly list types of activities that do not arise out of the normal use of an automobile. Insurers of VW minibuses, watch out! You may be sued for unwanted pregnancies and the cost of child-rearing by people claiming that they were using the automobile in the way that VW intended. 

I hope the Federal court throws out the award. As a matter of ethics, I suppose the lesson here is that people ought to take responsibility for their behavior which leads to unpleasant consequences, not look for a culprit with deep pockets to blame. Also, the woman in this case might consider that there is a simple vaccination for HPV that could have protected her. Or she might have talked to her partner about his sexual history and health before engaging in intimate behavior. And finally, the man should have disclosed his STD related health history to her.