11031L-V-0 1 94'S HERE NOW! Panel Discusses Final Choices RUTH UTTMANN STAFF WRITER LEASE PER MONTH FOR 36 MONTHS LEASE PER MONTH FOR 36 MONTHS VOLVO FRONT WHEEL DRIVE 850 SEDAN LEASE PER MONTH FOR 36 MONTHS VOLVO 850 SPORTSWAGON DWYER NS ANDSO ATOIATO/SUEIARU Maple Rd. West of Haggerty 624-0400 HURRY SALE ENDS NOV. 30 Due at inception: capitalized cost reduction of $4500 plus first monthly payment; Volvo lease acquisition fee of $450.00 security deposit equal to the monthly pay- ment rounded up to the next $25.00 increment. all applicable taxes and license due on delivery. Total obligation equals monthly payment times 36. 45,000 miles allowed. 15 cents per mile over 45,000. Purchase options are $13,050 (940 sedan), $15,950 (850 sedan) and $17,950 (850 sportswagon). Based on approved credit. Lessee responsible for excess wear and tear. Other down payment and term options are available. Offer expires 11-30-93. See Dwyer & Sons Volvo for details. OPEN SATURDAY VISIT OUR NEW SHOWROOM RELIABLE AND EXPERIENCED SINCE 1930 insurance estimates accepted expert color match, foreign & American TOWING & RENTAL CARS AVAILABLE La Salle Body Shop Inc. Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334 BETWEEN 12 & 13 Mile Rd. MAX FLEISCHER, FOUNDER 28829 LLI I 4 t., 14 MILE RD 457 -.)- DYNAMIC CAR CARE CENTER 113931001 W Open Monday-Saturday aavmozio Bring In Your Coupons And Warranties — We'll Work With You! • Mufflers • Brakes • Shocks • Alignment • Maintenance 'CRI 'Xl 16 553-7111 oe Stamell's Dynamic Muffler Brake 1 CD CC F- LU abbi E.B. Freedman re- cently asked a group of 15 grade-school stu- dents if they thought Judaism, Jewish history, the Bible and God have anything to do with assisted suicide. To Rabbi Freedman's cha- grin, 13 students answered: "No." "It's a problem," the rabbi said. "Assisted suicide is re- ally a Jewish issue." And a legal issue. And a medical issue. All three per- spectives on the issue surfaced at "Life's Final Choice," a pan- el discussion sponsored by the Resettlement and Jewish Family Service. The panel discussion, held Nov. 2 at the Jewish Federa- tion building, was part of the 25th Volunteer Institute, a yearly seminar to honor peo- ple who have volunteered for the agencies. "We tried to choose a topic of our time so that it would be interesting to all volunteers, no matter what program they're involved with," said Elina Zilberberg, program manager of the Volunteer Ser- vices Department. Boaz Siegel, professor emer- itus at Wayne State Universi- ty Law School, served on the panel with Rabbi Freedman and Diane Czlonka, a clinical nurse specialist and medical ethicist with Sinai Hospital. Dr. Siegel discussed the le- gal status of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The former amounts to "pulling the plug" on patients who are in perma- nent vegetative states or sim- ilar, non-recovery conditions. Since the U.S. Supreme Court has already acknowl- edged that, in some cases, a discontinuation of treatment is the best choice, euthanasia is not the salient issue, Pro- fessor Siegel said. "I think the real issue is now, and will be for some time, assisted suicide. Michigan, of course, is center stage for the whole country because of the activities of Dr. Jack Kevorkian," he said. Michigan's statute pro- hibiting "medicide," has not been tested, so it is too early to determine if it will stand up in court, he added. The statute, which was designed last win- ter to prevent Dr. Kevorkian from practicing medicide, might not hold up due to tech- nical difficulties. The Michigan constitution R VOLVO 940 SEDAN -e-f. 32661 Northwestern Hw . Farmin ton Hills • 851-3883 CAkEr 0 • with this ad TUNE-UPS starting at $39.95 4 cyl. stipulates that statutes may address only one point. The state's anti-medicide statute not only criminalizes the act of assisted suicide but also calls for a committee to study it. This could be interpreted as two points — which might cause a court to strike it down. Professor Siegel also hopes the issue will be determined via reason, not emotion. He hopes states will leave it as an option for people to choose. "I think we are in a situa- tion where the ultimate out- come will open up possibilities to people, not close them off," he said. "Those of us who are going to have to face this prob- lem are going to want a ratio- nal, practical solution." Ms. Czlonka spoke from a medical perspective. She fo- cused on the question of dis- continuing a patient's treatment. It is never clear- cut, she said: "(Since the 1960s), we've talked about death as a process. We've talked about the process of prolonging life. We wonder if we're prolonging life or death. "We wonder if we're prolonging life or death." Diane Czlonka "It becomes more compli- cated when we look at indi- vidual situations," she said. Value-loaded, quality-of-life questions come into play when doctors and families try to de- termine whether to continue a patient's artificial life support systems. Ms. Czlonka recalled the case of an elderly female cancer patient whose doctors believed they could prolong her life with heroic surgery. The family members, acting as the patient's advocates, protested. The patient, were she conscious, would never consent to the surgery, they said. It would leave her frail, dependent and miserable. She would rather be dead, they said. Finally, they convinced the doctors. Ms. Czlonka stressed the importance of advanced direc- tives, which include living wills, documents specifying conditions under which pa- tients would want doctors to