June 2, 2008
COMMUNITY SIGN-ON: EXPANDING ACCESS TO VOLUNTARY HIV TESTING IN NEW YORK
written informed consent
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Sign on to expanding access to voluntary HIV testing!(flickr.com/photos/25862661@N00/345577099/) |
On June 11, the state Assembly health committee will vote for a bill that implements a large-scale overhaul of Article 27-f, the HIV testing and consent law in New York that protects the confidentiality and privacy of anyone who has been tested for or exposed to HIV. There are multiple bills floating around the Assembly right now, and it is important that the changes to Article 27-f include written informed consent, and pre-and post-test counseling as required by the current law. While nobody is ever ready for a positive HIV test, we must do everything we can to make them as ready as possible, and to bring them into a working system of care and support services.
Housing Works, the Hispanic AIDS Forum, New York AIDS Coalition, Centro Civico of Amsterdam, Inc., New York Civil Liberties Union, Bronx AIDS Services, Community Healthcare Network, Institute for Family Health, Betances Health Center, Legal Action Center, HIV Law Project, and the Brooklyn United Community Coalition have all signed on to a statement of principles that New York State must include in any HIV testing and consent law. To join these organizations, and sign on to the principles outlined below, contact terri smith-caronia at smith-caronia@housingworks.org.
Statement of principles: Expanding access to voluntary HIV testing
The undersigned groups share the goal of expanding the availability of HIV testing and streamlining the testing process for providers. But expanding and streamlining testing cannot come at the expense of guaranteeing informed consent. In fact, ensuring that people understand what they are being tested for and what a positive test result means in terms of treatment availability, transmission prevention, and confidentiality and anti-discrimination protections is sound public health policy. When people understand the test and its implications, they are more likely to seek treatment and engage in efforts to reduce the spread of HIV.
We believe that:
1. Our goal is not testing for testing's sake. Getting more people tested should not be an end in itself, but rather, a way to reduce the overall number of cases of HIV transmission to connect HIV-infected people with lifesaving care;
2. Streamlining the HIV testing process does not require eliminating the protections that informed consent provides, and this is consistent with CDC recommendations;
3. Expanding access to testing for all New Yorkers can be done by making HIV-related testing a routine part of primary care;
4. It is critical that people freely choose to be tested for HIV and provide informed consent in writing prior to the test to indicate that testing is being done voluntarily;
5. Informed consent means that people affirmatively choose whether or not to be tested for HIV, not that they are given the option to decline to be tested;
6. People should be fully informed about the availability of anonymous testing, who will have access to the results of the test, how those results can be used, and what legal protections exist to vindicate any resulting discrimination before they choose to be tested; and
7. Existing confidentiality protections that do not operate as a barrier to testing must be retained.
We can increase the number of New Yorkers who know their HIV status in a way that is compatible both with civil and human rights AND sound public health policy. Dismantling written informed consent laws and patient/provider protections is not the way to do it. For these reasons, the undersigned oppose A.4813/S.7529.