AIDS DEBATE page 6

6 6

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those who do not agree with
the Council's position and
teachings. In other words,
they are telling one that "if
you don't think as we do you
must be immoral." Such a
prideful and stiff-necked po-
sition has, in my opinion, no
place in the serious discourse
concerning the prevention of
a deadly illness.
Contrary to Rabbi Grubn-
er and the Council, I believe
that the question of whether
to give out condoms to high
school students is a very good
question. Like most good
moral questions it is good be-
cause it poses a dilemma.
Rabbi Grubner and the
Council would , apparently,
totally ignore the reality of
the incidence of unwise sexu-
al behavior, hold high the
banner of abstention, and feel
morally well as those whom
they would deprive of AIDS
education die horrible deaths.
The notion, promoted by
Rabbi Grubner and the Coun-
cil, that a united front by all
Jewish organizations that ap-
proves of and talks only of ab-
stention will eliminate the
risk of AIDS to Jews is a sad
and tragic mistake. The his-
tory of mankind — and the
Jews as well — resounds
against such logic.
The rabbi and Council have
labeled a serious attempt to
apply Torah lessons to a dev-
astating social problem as
"blasphemous." Torah teach-
es placing high priority on hu-
man life. Yet they have either
chosen to ignore this funda-
mental teaching or are so de-
luded as to believe it has no
application...

Martin N. Fealk

Huntington Woods

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Law Of Torah
And Suicide

We are grateful for the

thoughtful article by Rabbi
Finman in the Jan. 8 Jewish
News on the traditional atti-
tude toward suicide.
It is important that we fol-
low Torah precepts carefully.
Of course we no longer ex-
tract an eye for an eye, make
animal sacrifices, stone peo-
ple to death, cast aside those
with Hansen's disease, etc.
We are more humane today.
The Lord that I pray to
each day is a Lord of mercy,
of love, of forgiveness and of
rachmonis (compassion). He
surely did not want to see mil-
lions of innocent human be-
ings suffer unbelievable
agony during the Holocaust.
Nor does he want to see peo-
ple today waste away in hor-
rible pain from cancer, ALS,
etc.
There are many tradition-
al Jews who favor allowing

those who are in agonizing
pain with no hope of recovery
to take their own lives. The
decision should be the sole
right of the individual in-
volved, and society should not
have the legal right to force
the terminally ill to suffer
grievously.
To Rabbi Finman, suicide
for the terminally ill is a
crime, and I respect his opin-
ion. But it is most unfair to al-
low any group to impose its
religious beliefs on all of soci-
ety.

Paul Kahn

Woodville, Ohio

Green Machines
Versus Safety

As an observer of the auto in-
dustry since the 1960s, I was
interested in Julie Candler's
Jan. 8 article, "Green Ma-
chines: Fuel efficient cars are
available for earth conscious
consumers." I would like to
point out two pertinent facts
Ms. Candler failed to men-
tion.
First, traffic accidents in
cars such as the Chevrolet
Geo Metro are much more
likely to result in a broken
neck than accidents in larger
cars. Whether it is worth sub-
jecting oneself to this added
risk in return for 35 or more
miles per gallon, is a decision
we all have to make.
Second, many of these
small cars are made in Japar
or South Korea. There is pres
sure from the UAW and, I'm
sad to say, Big Three execu-
tives to impose increasingly
stringent limits on automo-
tive imports from Japan.
It is ironic that those who
wax indignant over oil tanker
disasters, or who frighten us
with global warming scenar-
ios, are often the same ones
who raise the spectre of Japan
taking over our country if we
don't limit consumer access to
the excellent small cars they
make.
I believe we can increase
both our national automotive
fleet-average fuel economy
and jobs for American au-
toworkers. How? By repeal-
ing import quotas, so the -
Japanese can sell as many of
their small cars as Americans
want to buy.
At the same time, we
should take the handcuffs of
CAFE requirements off the
Big Three, so they can spe-
cialize in the larger cars that
are their traditional forte.
Unfortunately, you'll nev-
er hear intellectuals admit
the market is superior to fed-
eral meddling, because that
would mean admitting their
own superfluousness.

Alexander Kovnat

West Bloomfield

