California to Drop Written Consent Requirement for HIV Testing

Starting Jan. 1, hundreds of changes in state law will take effect. Among these is a measure that drops California's requirement for written consent prior to an HIV test. Under the law, patients would only have to give a doctor verbal consent to add HIV to other conditions for which they are being tested. Assembly member Patty Berg (D-Eureka), the bill's author, said the goal is to make it more likely that people will be routinely tested for HIV. In addition, legislation by Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) permits sperm from an HIV-infected man to be used to artificially inseminate a consenting, uninfected wife or partner if the sperm is processed to minimize the possibility of infection.

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