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Legal Advocacy in a Time of Plague

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Abstract

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Comment
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1993

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References

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of her family and her colleagues at the Legal Action Center especially Felix Lopez, Esq. and Robb Cowie for their editorial assistance and support and Catherine Harries, Law Intern. The author also acknowledges the members of the NYC TB Working Group for their collective contributions and wisdom.Google Scholar
Kunen, James S., “How Can You Defend Those People?”: The Making of a Criminal Lawyer (1983).Google Scholar
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Goffman, Erving, Asylums 16 (1961). Goffman compares asylums to prisons where “[t]he inmate cannot easily escape from the press of judgmental officials and from the enveloping tissue of restraint,” quoted in Glasser, Ira, “Prisoners of Benevolence, Power Versus Liberty in the Welfare State,” in Gaylin, et al., eds., Doing Good, The Limits of Benevolence (1978): 99, 111112.Google Scholar
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For example, in Florida, cases of AIDS, STD's and TB must be reported to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services county public health unit. F.A.C. Rules 10D-3.097(3), (5), 10D-3.105(1) and 10d-3.098(l)(b)(2). Florida authorizes personal restriction, isolation and compulsory outpatient or inpatient treatment of persons with STDs, Fla. Stat. §§ 384.27, 384.28, and partner tracing and contact in reported cases of STD's and AIDS. Fla. Stat. § 384.26. Florida also authorizes compulsory treatment and hospitalization of persons with TB, FAC Rule 10D-3.109.Google Scholar
See, for example, In Re Halko, 246 Cal. App.2d 553, 54 Cal.Rptr. 661 (Ct. App. 1966) (permitting indefinite confinement of a tubercular patient); People of State of Illinois v. C.S., 222 Ill. App.3d 348, 583 N.E.2d 726 (1991) (authorizing mandatory HIV testing and disclosure for persons convicted of unauthorized possession of a syringe). Allen v. Ingalls, 182 Ark. 991, 33 S.W.2d 1099 (1931) (emergency not necessary to justify immunization). Irwin v. Arrendale, 159 S.E.2d 719, 724 (GA. Appeal 1967) (state may order mandatory X-ray as part of infectious disease examination).Google Scholar
See, for example, Carlon, Cynthia A., “Tuberculosis Control: Will the Legal System Guard Our Health and Will the ADA Hamper Our Control Efforts?” J. Legal Med., 13 (1992): 563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Not long ago, a New York City Department of Health task force issued a draft report recommending the adoption of measures to facilitate the widescale detention of “chronically non-compliant TB patients.” New York City Department of Health, Draft Report (Spring 1992). The report asserted that it was necessary to rehabilitate certain TB patients in secure facilities. The task force proposed several possible detention sites, including “secure” drug treatment programs, nursing homes, “secure” TB shelters, and mental health facilities. The report, which was criticized extensively for focusing on containing the victim, not the disease, was retracted, to the city's credit. See also, Mahon, et al., New York City TB Working Group, “Developing a System for TB Prevention and Care in New York City,” (September 1992) [hereinafter TB Working Group].Google Scholar
See Wallace, , “A Synergism of Plagues: “Planned Shrinkage”, Contagious Housing Destruction, and AIDS in the Bronx,” Environmental Research 47 (1988): 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Personal communication to author from M. Isbell and TB Working Group, see also, “Developing a System for TB Prevention and Care in New York City,” supra note 10.Google Scholar
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TB Working Group, p. 19.Google Scholar
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Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932). See also, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963). For a discussion of the due process requirements in civil commitment proceedings, see Duizend, et al., “An Overview of State Involuntary Commitment Statutes,” Mental & Personality Disability L. Rep., 8 (1984): 328Google Scholar
N.Y. City Health Code § 11.47(d)(4).Google Scholar
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