Consent and H.I.V.

[The New York Times] reports that New York City’s health commissioner has been endeavoring to do away with a state requirement that stipulates patients give their written consent before getting an H.I.V. test. Apparently, this has created a lot of drama between doctors on one side and advocates for people with H.I.V. and AIDS on the other. Troubled by the statistics surrounding the disease, health commissioner Thomas R. Frieden called for governments to be much more, um, let’s say involved, in monitoring and caring for those infected. On Wednesday, Frieden shared his thoughts at a State Assembly meeting in Manhattan. The Pataki administration didn’t support his proposal and Gov. Spitzer seems to be on the fence. Frieden proposes that oral consent be sufficient to administer the test, and that post-test counseling be strengthened and pre-test counseling simplified.