Model health law empowers states

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/304/business/Model_health_law_empowers_states+.shtml

Model health law empowers states

Drugs, quarantine could be forced

By Bloomberg News,, 10/31/2001

ASHINGTON - States would be able to force patients to take medication under model legislation outlining when and how governors can use emergency powers to address public health crises such as recent anthrax attacks.

The model law, commissioned by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also would give people the right to appeal states' decisions to quarantine or isolate them. Individuals with contagious diseases, such as smallpox, wouldn't be able to appeal orders for treatment or vaccination under the law.

State governments are concerned that laws are inadequate to address new kinds of public health threats such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on buildings in New York and Washington or the use of germ or chemical weapons. Fifteen Americans have been infected with anthrax, a deadly bacterial disease, and thousands more are taking antibiotics as a precaution.

Lawrence Gostin, chief author of the model law and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said the academic panel that drafted the proposal tried to balance the need to control disease with individuals' civil rights - something he said isn't done under many current state laws.

''We felt if we were too Draconian and didn't respect people's rights, that meant the terrorists would win,'' Gostin said.

Emergency powers allow governors to suspend normal government temporarily, letting states swiftly address disease epidemics or natural disasters such as earthquakes. Legal and public health experts at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University examined all states' emergency-powers laws in crafting the model.

Under the model law, states could quarantine or isolate individuals who are infected with a contagious disease, though the patients would have the right to appeal that decision in court. The patient would remain quarantined or isolated until the appeals process was exhausted, Gostin said.

Patients could be forced to take medicines or receive vaccines for contagious diseases that pose a public health threat, such as smallpox, under the model law. Patients wouldn't be allowed to appeal a state's decision, though the state would likely quarantine anyone who refused to comply, triggering an appeals process, Gostin said.

States would avoid civil liberties violations if they enact laws that spell out penalties such as the loss of public benefits, instead of incarceration, for patients who refuse treatment, said R. Alta Charo, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

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