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