Subject: AIDS Bills in Illinois Reflect a Backlash
Date: Published: 7/3/87 108 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   AIDS Bills in Illinois Reflect a Backlash
   Against Moderate Public-Health Policies
    ---
   By Frank E. James
   Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

   CHICAGO -- The passage of the nation's toughest and most
comprehensive AIDS legislation by Illinois lawmakers reflects
a political backlash against the more moderate policies urged
by public-health officials.
   The package of Illinois legislation, which awaits Gov. 
James Thompson's signature, is already stirring controversy.
One bill, which Gov. Thompson supports, requires mandatory
testing of all marriage-license applicants.  Illinois would be
the first state to require such tests.
   The measures also would require testing of hospital
patients between the ages of 13 and 55, and that health
workers notify school officials about children diagnosed with
acquired immune deficiency syndrome.  Sexual partners of those
carrying the virus would be traced and notified, and infected
people viewed as threats to public health would be
quarantined by court order.
   The radical measures swept through the Illinois
legislature by a wide margin late last week and early this
week, despite protests by the state's own public-health
officials and intense budget pressures.  The bills reflect
politicians' concern about the rapidity of the spread of
AIDS, particularly in cities like Chicago.
   "Apparently, political expediency has prevailed over
common sense and the advice of the public-health
establishment in the U. S.," says Thomas B. Stoddard,
executive director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
in New York, an organization concerned with AIDS and gay
rights.
    "In Illinois, we've declared that the legislature is tired
of waiting for the public-health authorities to respond to
something they should have responded to all along," said
Penny Pullen, an Illinois senator and one of the sponsors of
the legislation.
    Lawmakers and public-health officials nationwide are
taking a close look at the legislation, which lands square in
the middle of the national debate over AIDS testing and
control policy.  Currently, mandatory testing applies only to
military recruits and many foreign-service officers.
   Thirty-five states have considered pre-marital AIDS
testing.  Texas recently passed a law that would require
pre-marital testing if the AIDS virus reaches a specified
level in the state's population, and South Carolina is
considering a pre-marital-testing bill.
   Last year, California rejected mandatory pre-marital
testing in favor of giving educational information to anyone
applying for a marriage license; Virginia took similar steps
this year.  Utah recently passed a law banning common-law
marriages if a partner tests positive.  Other states,
including Michigan, are mulling contact-tracing laws.
   Critics of the Illinois bills, including public-health
officials, civil libertarians, Chicago Mayor Harold
Washington and gay-rights leaders, fear the move could signal
the start of a larger political backlash against the moderate
policies recommended so far by medical groups.  Illinois
legislators have "set a very dangerous and sorry example for
the other states," says Mr. Stoddard of the gay-rights group.
   The critics note that the Illinois legislation contradicts
guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, the surgeon
general and, to some extent, the American Medical
Association.  Public-health specialists generally oppose
mandatory testing and keeping lists of names of those testing
positive in favor of voluntary, anonymous testing and
education.  They view the testing of certain low-risk groups,
such as marriage-license applicants, as a waste of resources.
   The measures also are opposed as discriminatory,
counterproductive and costly.  The legislation would violate
privacy rights, foster discrimination against homosexuals and
frighten away from testing members of high-risk groups,
critics maintain.  Furthermore, testing and contact-tracing
could put heavy pressure on state budgets.  It costs $80 to
$100 for each sexual contact traced in Illinois, says Harvey
Grossman of the American Civil Liberties Union.  And the basic
AIDS antibody test, the Elisa, costs as much as $30 each; an
entire screening, including confirmatory testing, costs about
$140.
   "People who are talking about costs just don't understand
what's coming down," says Ms. Pullen, the state senator.  She
argues that there already have been substantial costs, and
that "prudent protection measures need to be taken now in
order to prevent us from having to suffer" more in the
future.
   The Illinois AIDS bills do have some positive aspects, the
critics concede.  In particular, the measures would create
stricter standards of confidentiality to protect AIDS
sufferers.  Anyone breaching confidentiality would be subject
to criminal rather than the current civil penalties.
   In general, legislators are "expressing frustration that
this disease won't lend itself to a quick fix in any form,"
says Renslow Sherer, chairman of the Illinos AIDS Council and
head of AIDS services at Chicago's Cook County Hospital.
"It's a fearful problem and legislators are responding the
only way they know how -- by passing laws."

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the 
personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the 
hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering 
from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]