SHANGHAI - A woman in this eastern metropolis is suing her ex-boyfriend because she believes he infected her with HIV.

The case gives rise to much debate on whether people who know they have HIV can be held criminally liable for spreading it.

The woman, who is in her 30s and is surnamed Lin, is a white-collar worker in Shanghai and had once been married for a year. After that relationship ended, she met a new boyfriend online and they started living together in 2010.

Before moving in with him, Lin had asked her boyfriend, surnamed Xu, to undergo an examination to learn if he had contracted HIV or syphilis.

Lin soon got pregnant, and Xu insisted that she have an abortion.

Lin later tested HIV positive and immediately had an abortion. Xu admitted that he had been diagnosed as having HIV as early as 2009, and he had asked someone else for him to do the body checkup.

"Xu's act inflicted deliberate harm on the victim," said the woman's lawyer, Yang Shaogang, who has worked on many cases related to HIV and AIDS. "He should face criminal punishment."

"But, with the current criminal laws, it's very unlikely that Xu will be sentenced," Yang said. "For HIV and AIDS carriers, it's still difficult to define the extent of injury because there are no laws or regulations so far to use as a reference."

According to China's criminal law, people who know they have syphilis, gonorrhea or another serious venereal disease and still take part in prostitution can be sentenced to as many as five years in prison. They can also be saddled with fines.

Yang said the law only applies in cases involving prostitution and not when a couple is simply living together.

"In China, there is still no specific article in the criminal law pertaining to the intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS," Yang said.

On Wednesday, Lin took her ex-boyfriend to a civil court in Shanghai and asked for 1.5 million yuan ($240,000) in compensation.

A verdict is pending.

Zhou Dan, a lawyer and advocate for the rights of homosexuals and people who live with HIV, does not think that there should be criminal punishments for people who know they have the virus and pass it on to others.

He believed the legislation, if approved, will be at cross-purposes with the country's work to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

"It's hard to define what we mean by 'intentional'," He said. "Someone might directly intend to commit a crime while someone else might only indirectly intend to do so."

Zhou said the proposed legislation may only make those who suspect that they have contracted HIV reluctant to undergo medical examinations.

"They will not go to have HIV/AIDS testing anymore," Zhou said. "Once they are found to be HIV positive, they run the risk of being faced with a criminal charge if they accidentally transmit the disease."