[barry-cotter]

You absolutely can. If the U.K. made extramarital sex illegal and enforced it syphilis cases would fall. There are plenty of other less drastic measures that would have the same directional effect.

Evolution isn’t magic. The USA used to have malaria. Now it doesn’t.

[natbobc]

Better approach in my mind is to develop vaccines.

Last I checked marriage is by no means an STI preventing form of contraception so I think you mean monogamous relationship. As many people are in happy monogamous relationships with no intent for marriage because of a variety of reasons.

It's not entirely clear to me how you would even go about enforcing such a law. Why would either participant report their "crime"? Isn't that effectively what Judeo-Christian beliefs have encouraged since their inception?

[neinrand]

Because that certainly worked for the past 2,000 years. Must be why nobody ever had syphilis when extramarital sex actually was illegal. Oh wait.

[barry-cotter]

I suggest you learn to read more carefully. I did not suggest syphilis would be eliminated by making extramarital sex illegal. I said its incidence would be reduced. If you make something more expensive people do less of it. Fewer people smoke marijuana now than will once it’s legal because part of the cost is the possibility of a criminal record and all that entails.

[yorwba]

Infections would fall by the amount caused by extramarital sex, multiplied by the probability that people are actually deterred by illegality, plus network effects. That won't completely eradicate syphilis, but still lower the numbers.

[apocalypstyx]

We could also chemically castrate everyone through the water supply.

I mean, we should keep all our options on the table.

The Nazis shot people in the head for extra-marital sex. But they never got a handle on the problem. And to be honest, I doubt we can bring more ruthlessness to bear on the problem than they managed.

To paraphrase Darwin: if extramarital sex is outlawed, only outlaws will have extramarital sex.

And looking at other apes for a (very) rough metric, it's really hard to run against evolution when evolution's selected for...at least a certain genetic strain that leans toward non-monogamy. Interestingly enough, many bird species, while mating for life, are not sexual monogamous in that period.

The real question is: what're we going to to with all those chlamydia-infected koala bears?

[fiblye]

>The Nazis shot people in the head for extra-marital sex.

I can find zero statements outside this comment on HN backing up or even implying any sort of punishment relatively close to this absolutely absurd statement. Nazism wasn't some cartoonishly evil villain. Propping it up as such is dangerous because it makes people see it as an absurd historical event that is too crazy to be repeated.

[yorwba]

As far as I can tell, the Nazis were still using https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_f%C3%BCr_das_..., which punishes adultery with up to 6 months in prison, but only if someone (presumably the cheated spouse) files a suit.

[rplst8]

The USA isn't really a hotbed of mosquito infestation. Very little of the contiguous US is in a tropical climate zone.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Not really commenting on the GP post, but your comment isn't correct. Malaria used to be very common in the Southeastern US. During the Civil War thousands died from malaria. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Malaria_Eradication...

[abrowne]

Malaria is not limited to the tropics and historically was common in parts of Europe and North America, and likely even in what is now the United Kingdom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_malaria

http://pmj.bmj.com/content/80/949/663