Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.
http://educate-yourself.org/vcd/natlresponsemandatoryvaccines27dec01.shtmlSign Petition Against Model Legislation - 11/30/2001
Model Emergency Health Powers Act (MEHPA) Turns Governors into Dictators DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:
Since this is a bit of an unusual type of article I thought I would put my comment first.
It appears some very dangerous legislation is being prepared to be implemented in the US.
If this legislation passes, in brief:
1 - You will have a mandatory vaccination or you will be charged with a crime
2 - You will get a mandatory medical exam, or you will be charged with a crime
3 - Doctors will give the exam or you will be charged with a crime
4 - Your property can be seized if there is 'REASONABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE" that it may pose a public health hazard... it can be burned or destroyed and you will NOT have recourse or compensation.
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Action Step
You can go to
http://www.aapsonline.org/ and click on the Emergency Dictatorial Powers act in the left column. Then click on the December 13th Action Alert which will provide information on how to respond to your legislators on this issue.
Additional Resource
http://www.publichealthlaw.net/ Summary
This Act would:
broaden government access to private medical records; greatly weaken protections against the taking of private property without compensation; criminalize refusal to be conscripted for public service or to take medical treatment; potentially increase the risk of infection to many individuals on the pretext of protecting the common good; subjugate scientific analysis and deliberation to the raw assertion of power; greatly expand the power of government to interfere with commerce; and immunize state officials from sanctions against gross abuses of power. Although certain extraordinary government interventions might be warranted in a true emergency, the government already has significant emergency powers as well as the ability to convene a special session of the legislature. It is highly inadvisable to completely suspend our delicate system of checks and balances upon the word of a Governor that an emergency requires it. This Act, in effect, empowers the Governor to create a police state by fiat, and for a sufficient length of time to destroy or muzzle his political opposition. The most telling sentence is: "The public health authority shall have the power to enforce the provisions of this Act through the imposition of fines and penalties, the issuance of orders, and such other remedies as are provided by law, but nothing in this Section shall be construed to limit specific enforcement powers enumerated in this Act." Article VIII Section 802. It is unlikely that the vast expansion of governmental powers would be restricted to combating a smallpox outbreak. Once the precedent is established, it could be expanded to other types of "emergencies."
This proposal violates the very principles that its author, Lawrence O Gostin, has previously outlined, while giving them lip service. His article recommends that "public health authorities should bear the burden of justification and, therefore, should demonstrate
(1) a significant risk based on scientific evidence;
(2) the intervention's effectiveness by showing a reasonable fit between ends and means;
(3) that economic costs are reasonable;
(4) that human rights burdens are reasonable...." (see JAMA 2000;283:3118-3122).
Background
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson is urging State legislatures to adopt the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, prepared by the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This Act grants unprecedented and unchecked powers to the Governors of the 50 States. It can be downloaded from
http://www.publichealthlaw.net. It is likely that HHS will tie passage of the Act to billions of dollars in federal funding: the usual method of bribery/coercion to get States to pass legislation that would otherwise never be considered. Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation said: "Tommy Thompson, whom I have considered a friend for thirty years, should be ashamed of himself for advocating this kind of Big Brother legislation. This is not the Tommy Thompson we knew as a four-term governor of Wisconsin."
HHS is using the 9/11 emergency as a pretext to rush passage of an Act that has been in the works for more than a year. Its main author, Lawrence O. Gostin, was a member of Clinton's Task Force on Health Care Reform, whose secret documents were exposed to public view as a result of the AAPS lawsuit (AAPS et al v. Hillary Rodham Clinton et al.) He was a member of Working Group 17, Bioethics, of Cluster V, The Ethical Foundations of the New System, and also a member of the informal group promoting Single Payer. It is odd that Tommy Thompson should be urging adoption of a plan originating with the most extremist left wing of Clinton's Health Care Task Force.
