4iie £fr1yigan Baffn
Eighty-Five Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Spare a
ANATOMICAL DONATIONS
bldeBdy
Tuesday, April 8, 1975
News Phone: 764-
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
CRISP: Off to stale start
HOSE UNFORTUNATES who hap-
pened to suffer through the first
few moments of the abortive CRISP
system should report immediately to
the Administration Building for their
Congressional medals of honor. The
system, an obvious failure by any ac-
count, is just another example of ad-
ministrative bungling - what looks
good on paper just doesn't make it
in the real world.
It is funny to see all the big-shot
officials in their double knit Johnny
Carson suits smiling with pride at
the efficiency of the system, but they
neglect to step out in the hall and
see the 400 drawn faces swallowing
their plight like o good swig of cas-
tor oil.
Just as landing on the moon has
resulted in the virtual elimination of
war and famine from the face of
the earth, so the CRISP system is an-
other giant step for mankind-
would you believe a banana step?
How about an umbrella step? One
step beyond?
IT IS CLEAR THAT the CRISP sys-
tem deserves a more fitting mon-
iker - somehting to the tune of
STALE. "It will get better" They with
a capital T tell us. "It is just a ques-
tion of time." But for those of us
with just a few blessed semesters
remaining, "time" is a real ha ha.
And the joke is on us. Students who
were planning to graduate before the
end of the decade are finding out that
the CRISP system is so slow, they
are lucky if they register before the
turn of the century.
Who are those masked men who
designed the mish mosh? How can
they sleep at night knowing that
they are complete and total incom-
petents? We'll bet you even money
they're U-M grads.
And here are a few hints for you
future CRISP victims. Don't make
any dates within three hours of your
scheduled time. Bring along coffee
and doughnuts, and if you have a few
to spare, you can probably begin a
pretty profitable business. Bring
along a deck of cards, a book, a mir-
ror, anything that will keep you oc-
cupied. Use your imagination. Pre-
tend you are about to spend the next
three weeks in a Red Cross shelter
in Xenia, Ohio, and you will have a
pretty close approximation of what
it's like to "CRISP."
One thing is clear about the whole
affairs - registration cannot live by
CRISP alone.
By DEBRA HURWITZ
DESPITE OFTEN having been the sub-
ject of grisly jokes and Transylvan-
ian "experiments," donating one's body
to science is a serious matter. Donations
provide medical schools with the mater-
ial essential to the study of anatomy,
which is, in one form or another, the
basis for most advanced medical know-
ledge.
In the past, the state's unclaimed dead
-those in institutions, without relatives
or without provisions for burial-furnish-
ed Michigan's medical, dental, and post-
graduate students, as well as parame-
dics, with the bodies necessary to their
studies. However,dSocialSecurity bene-
fits now include provisions for burial ar-
rangements, and medical schools no
longer receive many bodies from these
sources.
PRIOR TO 1958, an individual in Mi-
chigan did not have the right to donate
his body to a medical school or research
institution. The decision to do so had to
be made by the decedent's family. Act
No. 138 of the Michigan Public Acts of
1958 established the individual's right to
decide prior to death whether or not he
wished to donate his body.
The "Uniform Anatomical Gift Act" of
1969 further clarified the legal aspects of
anatomical donation: any person of
"sound mind and 18- years of age or
more maybgive all or any part of his
body" to be used by "any accredited
medical or dental school, college or uni-
versity for education, research, advance-
ment of medical or dental science or
therapy."
As a result of this Act, most anatomi-
cal donations come from individuals
who have long since signed forms declar-
ing their intent. The notion of many of us
may have of morbid researchers lurking
at deathbeds, eagerly awaiting new corp-
ses, is entirely mythical. Though occa-
sionally a terminally ill hospital patient
will sign a donation form, most donors
have made their decision years in ad-
vance.
IN ADDIITION, bodies received by
medical schools are used solely to facili-
tate anatomical instruction, not for spe-
cific research on any particular disease.
At the University of Michigan Medical
and are accompanied by a multi-denom-
inational service.
Single organs or parts of the body may
be donated for transplant purposes, but
these donations are more frequently
handled through organizations such as
the Michigan Eye Bank or the National
(or Michigan) Kidney Foundation, etc.
Though the Department of Anatomy does
stock the necessary forms, it does not
handle or use organ or specific part do-
nations. The usual procedure in organ
grams) as well as their entire bodies
may do so; the removal of the cornea in
no way renders the body unfit for ana-
tomical instruction.
Not since post-Civil War days have me-
dical centers paid for anatomical mater-
ial-the schools all run entirely on dona-
tions. Professor Thomas Oelrich, who
heads the University's Office of Anato-
mical Donation, says this year has been
one of "optimum receipts." The medical
and dental facilities have adequate ma-
terial and are able to teach small classes
without fear of incurring a shortage.
However, Oelrich stressed that medical
education is a continuing process; new
donors, if not needed now, will be in the
future.
RESEARCH REQUIRING parts of the
anatomy which can be taken without
danger from live individuals-such as
blood or skin-is also carried out at the
University by researchers on grants from
various foundations. Students are often
"invited to participate " in such dona-
tions,tand many researchers are willing
to pay for the material they need. Ad-
vertisements for these opportunities are
found in the libraries and other commons
areas of the Medical and Dental Schools.
Anyone interested in donating his or
her body for future anatomical instruc-
tion should know the forms one signs are
in no way binding. Any oral statement of
revocation holds, as do signed state-
ments-either delivered to theprospec-
tive "donee" or kept on the donor's per-
son. Further, if one has a card identify-
ing one as a donor of any kind, simply
destroying the card legally destroys the
contract.
Debbie Hurwitz is a member of the
Editorial Page staff who has willed her
body to researchers at Moe's Body Shop,
School, all whole body donations are
handled by the Department of Anatomy,
independently of any of the area hospi-
tals.
The Anatomy Department embalms
the bodies it receives, then stores them
until they are needed. After dissection,
the bodies are cremated, then buried in
a cemetery plot provided by the Univer-
sity. The burials occur once annually,
donations is to return the body to the
family after the organ in question has
been removed; the body does not become
available for classroom use.
ALL BODIES are acceptable to the
University's Anatomy Department, save
those which are badly burned or mutilat-
ted. Further, persons who wish to donate
their eyes (for sight restoration pro-
Isolationists: Realists or reactionaries?
Orphan tragedy redoubled
LIKE NO OTHER political event in
recent years, the airlift of Viet-
namese orphans out of war-torn
Saigon has for the moment penetra-
ted the callous post-Watergate shell
of national introversion and touched
the hearts of the American public.
It's good to see that numbed do-
mestic sensitivities, so long bruised
and batter by the Vietnam experi-
ence, are still capable of reaching
out and accommodating the true in-
nocents of Vietnam.
But before patting ourselves on
the back and indulging in protract-
ed self-congratulations for having
saved the orphans from an unholy
fate, we must ask ourselves what, if
anything, we have saved them from.
There must be something faulty
about a national conscience that
can praise itself for easing the plight
of homeless children whose homeless
condition we created in the first
place. It's pure folly to suggest that
the orphans condition would in any
way be threatened by PRG ascend-
ency in Vietnam. Why are we so eag-
er to believe that. What sore of dis-
torted logic could lead one to believe
that an imminent end to hostilities
in a land that has known so little
peace requires forced exile of its
most pitiable inhabitants? We're
TODAY'S STAFF
News: Gordon Atcheson, Steve Hersh,
Mary H a r r i s, Lois Josimovich,
Cheryl Pilate, Jeff Sorensen
Editorial Page: Clifford Brown, Barb
Cornell, Paul Haskins, Debra Hur-
witz, Steve Ross
Arts Page: David Weinberg
Photo Technician: Ken Fink
TE V(ENAM COMMUNISTS (AN'T
E TRUSTEPN THEY LIE ANP CHEAP
fRAAT6 WHY VCE TRCE 5N'T WORKIN6
I **
hard-pressed to miss the bitter irony
implicit in the American agents of
agony suddenly transforming them-
selves into angels of mercy without
so much as batting an eye.
MANY OF THE Vietnamese orphans
suffer physical illnesses or dis-
abilities that Vietnamese clinics
were ill-equipped to ease or remedy,
and, for them, the airlift may well be
a lifesaver. But most of the orphans
are healthy and perfectly capable
of living full and meaningful lives,
if not according to American stand-
ards.
Those American families who have
opened their hearts to the Vietna-
mese orphans should be commended.
But their outpouring of charity
should not obscure the unjustifiable
imposition of American values on an-
other culture, and the U. S.'s un-
abashed effort to use on the orphan
situation to escalate American in-
volvement in Indonesia.
Business Staff
DEBORAH NOVESS
Business Manager
Peter Caplan................ Finance Manager
Robert F. Cerra...........Operations Manager
Beth Friedman ..................Sales Manager
David Piontkowsky ....... Advertising Manager
DEPA. MGRS. Dan Brinza, Steve LeMire, Rhondi
Moe, Kathy Muhern, Cassie St. Clair
ASSOC. MGRS. David Harlan, Susan Shultz
ASST. MGRS. Dave Schwartz
STAFF John Benhow, Colby Bennet, Margie De-
Ford, Elaine Douas, James Dykdema, Nine
Edwards, Debbie Gerrish, Amy Hartman,
Joan Helfmlan, Karl Jenning, Carolyn Koth-
stein, Jacke Krammer, Anna Kwok, vicki
May, Susan Smereck, wayne Tsang, Ruth
wolman
NOW SOUTH VIETNAM 15 IN PEEP
ItOU E ANV I)'6 -'HE FAULT OF
CON SS oFIOR O VOiMG ENOL1G
By ROBERT MILLER
"THE FOOD CRISIS is not a
chance happening. It is the
outcome of policies which have
been pursued with unswerving
tenacity and disregard for con-
sequences for a quarter of a
century," claims Geoffrey Bar-
raclough, the eminent historian.
He continues: "The future o
mankind, to put it bluntly, can
no longer be left to what the
Ford Foundation report calls
'the so-called market place'. An
economic system based on 'the
control of society by the rela-
tionships of money, rather than
the control of money relation-
ships by society' can only, in
today's circumstances, lead to
disaster." In short, what is por-
tetitiously called the food and
energy crisis, is in reality a cri-
sis of prices and money."
Yet there is a group of man-
iacs scampering about propos-
ing we starve half the world.
One of these people is Garrett
Hardin, author of the notorious
"lifeboat theory". Hardin feels
we would do the starving coun-
tries a favor if we stopped feed-
ing them now.
IN ADDITION, Jay Forrester
of M.I.T., claims: "No matter
how much food you have, popu-
lation will overrun it." He pro-
poses a policy of "directing aid
to those countries with the
greatest chance of survival,
while abandoning others to fa-
mine." Frighteningly, there are
even more misguided misan-
thropes on the loose.
To boot, William and Paul
Paddock introduced the mind-
boggling concept of "food tri-
age" in their book "Famine-
19751", written eight years ago
Instead of floundering in nu-
clear ruin," they state, "the
world is swept by famine as
the populations of many regions
outstrips their agricultural ca-
pacities. Only one nation, the
United States, has a sizeable
surplus of food. And with God-
like finality we dispense it, after
systematically deciding which
people are salvageable and
should be fed, and which will
survive without help, and which
are hopeless and should be left
to the ravages of famine."
In addition, Dale Runge has
admirably demonstrated that he
is among the half dozen "schol-
ars" who have their heads firm-
ly fixed in their anal passage-
ways. Runge's "The Ethic of
Humanitarian Relief" concludes
that massive relief efforts from
the outside for each national
disaster is "not ethical" because
by itself it creates more misery
than it alleviates.
TO BEGIN with, there is plen-
ty of fat to trim before anyone
can dispense food with "God-
like finality". Barbara Ward
wrote in the Economist that Am-
ericans have added 350 pounds
to their annual diet since 1965,
an amount nearly equivalent to
an Indian's diet for a whole
year. Moreover, developing na-
tions used more grain for live-
stock feed in 1970 "than the to
tal consumption of China and
India". And as Barraclough
says "every reputable demogra-
pher knows that the only histor-
ically proven way of reducing
population growth is to improve
livi , standards, beginning with
adequate feeding".
In essence then, the above
proposals have as much biolo-
gical and ecological justification
as the Nazi's "Final Solution".
They, do highlight, however, the
urgent need for revolutionary
economic and political change
here and abroad to remedy the
inequality of food distribution.
It is difficult indeed to digest
the proposition that our econo-
mic and political system is as
pernicious as Nazi ideology was.
Whether or nor we accept this,
we would be foolish to expect
any country to sit back and
watch its population starve. But
nevertheless, one might ask,
what does our economic and po-
litical system have to do with
the "food shortage" anyway?
TO START, it was only in
1974 that the United States gov-
ernment stopped paying farm-
ers not to produce, thereby
bringing 50 million unproductive
acres into productivty.
According to the Transnaton-
al Institute in Washington, dur-
ing the famine of 1965-6 in India
food aid was withheld until the
Indian Government agreed to
"the penetration of U.S. capital"
of the petrochemical industries
headed by the Rockefeller group
into the field of fertilization.
Henry Kissinger told the
Rome food conference "modern
fertilizer is the most crucial
single input for increasing crop
yield". However, the production
and marketing of fertilizers are
controlled by international cor-
porations that have no interest
in eliminating shortages and re-
ducing prices and no evident in-
centive to help developing coun-
tries. Lester Brown, in "By
Bread Alone", states that cor
porations have shown great re-
luctance to invest in new plants
in the underdeveloped world cr
to "provide technical assistance
for plant management and re-
pair".
EVEN WHEN the United
States had an enormous surplus
is was sent abroad for self-serv-
ing reasons. First, it prevented
domestic grain prices from fall-
ing greatly. Secondly, and per-
haps most importantly, the U.S.
thwarted the development of
emerging staple producing en-
terprises in the third world.
Thirty years ago the underde-
veloped countries as a whole
had a large surplus of food. Les-
ter Brown says "Net grain ex-
ports from Latin America were
substantially higher than those
from North America". A World
Bank report on Mali, one of the
Sahelian countries worst affect-
ed by the drought, states "pro-
duction of food for domestic con-
sumption has declined steadily
from 60,000 tons in 1967 to a cur-
rent 15,000 tons, but export
crops, notably peanuts, have in-
creased during the same period,
despite the ravages of the re-
cent drought." Meanwhile, the
U.S. has encouraged increased
meat consumption in Japan and
Western Europe so we can sell
them grain and improve our
balance of payments.
IN HIS ESSAY on "food tri-
age" in the New York Times,
Wade Green states "our food al-
location these days seems to be
based almost entirely on how i
benefits us, the donors, rather
than the recipients either by
helping our balance of pay-
ments through export sales or
our balance of power by keep-
ing strategically important coun-
tries friendly."
Currently, most aid goes to
South Vietnam, South Korea,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Sy-
ria and Israel, thereby reducing
humanitarian aid to needier
countries. A National Security
Council representative even had
the audacity to remark, "To
give food aid to countries just
because people arestarving is
a pretty weak reason."!
Robert Miller is a regular
contributor to the Editorial
Page.
PIRGIM REPORTS:
Out with bad air,
in with hot aiiy
By RICHARD CONLIN
A RECENT DECISION by the Air Pollution Control Com-
mission in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources
damages the people of Michigan in two ways: First, it sub-
sidizes and encourages the building of nuclear power plants.
And second, it rips off the taxpayer by giving utility compan-
ies an unjustified tax break.
The tax break has been granted under a provision of Mi-
chigan's air pollution laws which provides exemption from the
property tax for facilities constructed to control air pollution.
This exemption was designed to help companies with the ex-
tra costs imposed on them to meet the standards of the Air
Pollution Control Act.
Thet tax exemption bill was a companionrbill to Michi-
gan's Air Pollution Control Act of 1965. It provides that a
company which is required to construct an air pollution con-
trol device can subtract the cost or value of that device from
its property tax liability.
WHILE MOST OF the tax exemptions granted have been
legitimate, recently the issue arose of the possibility of tax
exemption under the Act for certain portions of nuclear pow-
er plants.
The power companies have argued that nuclear facilities
should get a partial tax exemption because their control de-
vices prevent air pollution-in other words, that nuclear par-
ticles are a form of air pollution.
The staff of the Air Pollution Control Commission, after
having granted two such requests in the past, became un-
easy about the concept. It recently asked the Commission to
rule on whether these facilities are appropriately tax exempt.
The Commission held a public hearing February 4, and de-
cided by a 5-4 vote on March 18 toballow the exemption.
As part of its concern about both energy costs and nu.
clear power policies, as well as tax loopholes, PIRGIM filed
testimony for the February hearing.
WE TESTIFIED THAT nuclear shielding was not built t
meet the standards of the Air Pollution Control Act. Nuclear
shielding is mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
of the federal government (formerly the Atomic Energy'Com-
mission). It must also meet standards promulgated by the
Michigan legislature in a 1972 act giving the Radiological
Health Divison of the Michgan Department of Publc Health
limited authority to regulate nuclear facilities within Michi-
gan.
Such shielding would be required whether or not the Air
Polluition Control Act existed. Therefore, we believe, to grant
parts of nuclear plants a tax exemption under the Air Pollu-
tion Act is wrong. The tax exemption was designed to miti-
gate costs generated by this Act; if there are no such costs,
exemption is simply putting an extra burden on other tax-
payers. The chief legislative sponsors of the Air Pollution
Act, Representatives Warren Goemoere (D-Roseville) and
Thomas Anderson (D-Southgate), have indicated that they
agree with this interpretation.
PIRGIM feels that nuclear power must be dealt with very
cautiously. At the very least we should examine and weigh
both social and economic costs prior to nuclear development.
THE TAX EXEMPTION (amounting to over $100 million
for presently operating plants) would enable nuclear plants
- ,. - ,.« 4 ._ ...~s..t .nf -1 U1 a A. l t l
I
Letters to The Daily
144WV V YO1OU KNOW T4A
MR. SCALE51WII??
W141? IT 5AY O0RIGHTHERE IN
?N15 NOM1- VIETNAM COMMUNIST
LN, MAAZIN ! ,
housing
To The Daily:
WE FEEL that the Univer-
sity's recent dorm lottery is un-
responsive and unfair to stu-
dents. The University has a re-
sponsibility to students to pro-
vide decent on-campus housing.
Not only is the University's
housing grossly overpriced and
minimal in its services, it is
now scarce as a result of the
lottery. The University explains
its arbitrary expulsion of stu-
dents from the dorms by say-
ing that they cannot accom-
modate the return rate of stu-
dents. They claim this year that
145 extra spaces. The Admis-
sions Office's highest estimates
predict an additional 50 enroll-
ed freshpersons next fall. Fur-
theremore, by the fifth week of
class there is generally a 3 per
cent vacancy rate which
amounts to 216 open spaces.
THE UNIVERSITY has re-
moved 1200 people from the
dorms who wished to return.
These displaced people are
now forced to find housing off
campus. Off-campus housing in
Ann Arbor is overpriced, over-
crowded and poorly managed. It
is unfair of the University to
force people to live in these
,,onditins
withdrou-1a
To The Daily:
DUE TO THE asinine and in-
fantile actions of the Student
Government Council during the
past week, James Cummings
and Don Kania do hereby de-
clare our withdrawal of any and
all intentions of seeking the
offices of president and vice-
president of the Student Govern-
ment Council. This is not the
only reason for our decision.
Our two man party "The
Greeks" was alleged to be rep-
.r