Health bill endangers civil rights

[Khoder bin Hakkin]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/11/25/MN232750.DTL

                 Health bill endangers civil rights

                 The administration wants all 50 states to
                 adopt a law allowing public health
                 authorities to take over hospitals, seize
                 drug supplies, quarantine people exposed to
                 infectious pathogens, draft doctors to treat
                 them, force patients to be vaccinated, and
                 order police to restrain residents from
                 leaving contaminated areas.
...
                 Civil rights protections, however, are
                 exactly what opponents find lacking. The
                 kind of public health emergency that would
                 trigger extraordinary powers for health
                 officers is defined so broadly that it could
                 include AIDS, HIV infection or a severe flu
                 epidemic, said Tanya Ehrmann, director of
                 public policy at the activist group AIDS
                 Action in Washington, D.C.

                 Annas said that under the legislation,
                 people could be detained without a court
                 order and isolated in stadiums or clinics
                 without an adequate process to challenge
                 the decision. The proposed law would also
                 shield health officers from liability, along
                 with anyone working at their direction, for
                 deaths or health damage suffered by
                 quarantined bioterror victims, he said.

                 Under the measure, "if you kill people or
                 hurt them, that's tough," said Annas, one
                 of 10 New England health law scholars
                 urging Thompson to change the draft law.
                 "The families can't sue, nobody can sue."