Compassion fatigue.

Darnell McGee defined the cliche "Live fast, die young." From 1992, when he tested positive for HIV, to January 1997, when he was shot to death, the East St. Louis, Ill., drug dealer allegedly engaged in unprotected intercourse with at least 61 women, infecting at least 13 of them. Friends say that after learning of his HIV status, McGee, 28, decided to infect as many partners as possible.

If conservative legislators have their way, McGee will become the terrifying new face of AIDS. Their task is made easier, some say, by the advent of powerful new drugs that are changing public perceptions about people with HIV. A case in point is the HIV Prevention Act of 1997, which would resurrect punitive measures for people with HIV that activists had considered dead and buried: It would require states to notify the sex partners of people who test positive for HIV, set up a national registry listing those who test positive, and force every state to eliminate anonymous HIV testing. In seeking cosponsors for the bill, Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) sent colleagues in the House a letter on April 17, to which he attached a copy of a Time magazine article on McGee headlined ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY VIRUS.

Some activists worry that attacks on the civil rights of the HIV-positive may be more credible in an era when, because some people with AIDS are suffering less, the disease is no longer regarded as its own "punishment." "There's no question that AIDS is a much harder sell when people see it as a manageable disease," says Joe Zuniga, spokesman for the AIDS Action Council, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group. "The challenge facing AIDS advocates is making sure that society retains a sense of compassion."

But Coburn and others are also making headway by arguing that in the presence of the new antiviral drugs, contact tracing is more desirable than it was previously since it allows newly infected people to start treatment with the drugs right away. "This bill aims at protecting the uninfected and at helping those who are infected to discover their status as early as possible to maximize the opportunities now available," Coburn said in a prepared statement.

In some cases the political strategy is working. Not only does Coburn's bill already have 80 cosponsors in the House, but the American Medical Association--which has traditionally opposed contact tracing--has endorsed it. In a similar move North Dakota governor Edward Schafer signed into law April 10 a measure that gives judges the power to jail and test anyone accused of "significantly" exposing another person to HIV.

Matthew Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, says that the lessons of the early days of the epidemic still apply. "You can stop someone like McGee by throwing him in jail, but ordinary citizens cannot be compelled to give names unless they want to," he says. "Experience shows us that HIV prevention works best when people do not feel afraid to cooperate with public health officials voluntarily."