Public health bill consultation was done years ago - MoH

"We communicated with different key stakeholders with the understanding that they would return to their constituencies to share with their people," she said. She gave an example of the discussion of the use of corpses to educate future medical practitioners as one of the aspects of the bill that were discussed in 2004.

El-Halabi denied that the new health bill infringes on Batswana's human rights, as widely perceived. She stressed that the bill was drawn out with interests of protecting the public and not the health practitioner. With regard to HIV testing, she explained that the basic principle is that health practitioners shall not conduct a test on clients without
that client's consent.