The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA) is a proposed act written by the Center for Law and the Public's Health, a collaboration of Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University, to aid the United States' state legislatures in revising their public health laws to control epidemics and respond to bioterrorism.
Contents
Draft
The initial proposal was drafted at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Lawrence O. Gostin, an attorney in Washington, D.C. during the anthrax letter attacks in 2001, with the draft dated October 23. Gostin stated that it took him three to four weeks to prepare the act.
The draft named the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the National Association of County and City Health Officials as collaborators without Gostin contacting them. A later version, dated December 21, 2001, made the revised statement on its title page that the law was a "draft for discussion … to assist" those organizations.
Criticism
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons claimed that the draft used sweeping language to the extent that it "could turn governors into dictators", and Phyllis Schlafly called it "an unprecedented assault on the constitutional rights of the American people."
Defence
However, attorneys Jason W. Sapsin, Stephen P. Teret; Scott Burris, Julie Samia Mair, James G. Hodge Jr, Jon S. Vernick and Gostin wrote in an article in the August 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn., that "Provided those powers are bounded by legal safeguards, individuals should be required to yield some of their autonomy, liberty, or property to protect the health and security of the community."
Current status
As of 2007, 33 states had introduced 133 legislative bills or resolutions that were based upon or featured provisions related to the articles or sections of the act. Of these, 48 had passed.