w w w 9 r ....... ............ . ..:.:....... ..: :::: COVER STORY Ethics Page 1 Every day, doctors must make decisions that will lead to the lifeor death of their patients. That's why it takes so long to learn to be a doctor. But can the ethical background for those decisions be taught? If so, how do universities fare at that education? Cover photo by University Health Sciences Relations. MUSIC Concerts Page 4 From the melodious harmony of the Roches to the legendary Sippie Wallace with stops at David Eyges and ABC, we ve got the right concert for you. CLASSICS Chorus Page 6 The righteous strains of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" ring out as perennial Christmas favorite The Messiah is performed. THE LIST Happenings Page 7-10 Your guide to fun times for the coming week in Ann Arbor. Film capsules, music previews, theater notes, and bar dates, all listed in a handy-dandy, day-by-day schedule. Plus a roster of local restaurants. RESTAURANTS Sippie Wallace: Celebration Chez Crepe Page 11 nISCoS They're not just for breakfast anymore. Slap it on a plate with maple syrup and they're called pancakes. But if you fold them around meat, fish, or vegetables, they're crepes. The magic wonders of this French import are discovered at Chez Crepe. BANDS Girl Talk Albums Page 12 Joni Mitchell, Phil Collins, and Prince. As in- dividual a bunch of songsters as you'd ever want to meet. And they all have new albums out. Let's Talk About Girl: a band, gets profiled. Making the rounds: A doctor's dilemma as resource material. Topics in Ethics from 1 The University of Michigan's Medical school offers only one ethics course, an elective, to its students each term. Its Inteflex program, a seven-year com- bined undergraduate and medical school curriculum, requires that students complete a general humanities program, and that they take an ethics course-they have one to choose from-during their third year. Soon, they will also have to participate in ethics discussion groups during their sixth year. Some medical school administrators, including Dr. James Taren, associate dean of administration, think this ap- proach is more than sufficient. They would like to have a program on ethics, they say, but they don't think its worth the sacrifices that would "have to be made in other areas. Besides, they just don't have the money, they say. Although the school does not have a medical ethics requirement, according to Taren, its graduates are as well- prepared to deal with the moral problems doctors face as the graduates of any other medical school. The University is "probably consistent with our peer institutions," he says. "The curriculum committee has debated adding a course in the first two years. But the first two years of medical school are so rigorous that the benefits of adding a regular course would be more negative than positive," he says. "The course would have to compete with other courses.". Not everyone agrees. Prof. Martin Pernick, who teaches medical history, says that although "a Doctor Franken- stein will not be converted by an ethics course," the University needs to do more. "As far as mandatory course work goes, yes, there should be a selec- tive distributive requirement (in ethics)," he says. When he came to the University four years ago, Pernick says, the medical school was talking about establishing a "large human- values unit. The concern has been demonstrated," he says. "The in- stitution is failing." Pernick came to Ann Arbor from the faculty of Penn. State University's medical school humanities program. "Religious Foundations of Health Care" include the nature of health and healing, the relationship of religion, science, and technology, and the in- fluence of religion on the ethics and politics of health care. A course in the history and philosophy of genetics gives students a chance to examine how genetics should be used to determine the future of society. Students discuss the various applications of genetics research-such as in , vitro fertilization and cloning-from ethical, social, and scientific points of view. According to Pernick, Penn State's' 'A Doctor Frankenstein will not be conver- ted by an ethics course.' -Prof. Martin Pernick dergraduate years. "Medical school is not the place to teach ethics and philosophy," he says. "(It should) in- troduce students to problems that exist in the medical arena." The brown bag setting is good, according to Abrams, because it "brings out strong ideas and emotions. Elective courses are great because there is only a minimum of consciousness-raising needed." The already crowded curriculum is an insurmountable stumbling block to added . required courses, he says. In making room for the new requiremen- ts, "what courses do we sacrifice?" he asks. Traditionally, doctors have been the ones to decide which patients will be the happy recipients of scarce organs. Jamie Fiske's case brings up many pressing questions about that role-what if there had been another child at the hospital who needed that liver just as much? Should Jamie have gotten it because her parents had better public relations skills than the parents of the other child? It all comes down to a question of medical ethics, that amorphous area of debate that is part of every doctor's everyday routine, that is sometimes dragged through malpractice courts, and that is finally finding its way into medical schools-some medical schools, anyway. The current interest surrounding assignments of organs to patients is only the tip of the iceberg. More and more, doctors are feeling public pressure in areas that aren't strictly medical. For instance, they are asked about their roles in civil defense plan- ning. Are they obligated, as doctors, to actively participate in civil defense planning? Or should they avoid such planning, because it implies that a nuclear war is survivable? Or teenage birth control. Should doc- tors notify parents when their children .} s:.... .... .......... ... ....... ...........r..... ... bargaining committee, you either want group including faculty, students, and members to see 1000 GSA's making up picket staff. Why single out GEO because it, on. The signs or else get them to sign on the dot- fails to get language into its contract? new lead ted line whatever the U has to offer. What about the faculty, student gover- begin to1 Second the anticontract opposition. nment, other staff unions? functioni There were 184 GSA's who voted again- Events show that GEO was pushed would n st the contract, a riskier but more prin- too fast into bargaining before having unaccep cipled position. Instead of talking to any a chance to rebuild its institutional ratificati( To Weekend: of them, the reporters chose to inter- structures, especially the stewards The ins I happened to read the article on the view Graves and Bekken who are not council-a body of elected represen- connect GEO membership meeting of Nov. 18: GSA's but were vocal at the Nov. 18 tatives from the many work units or organizal "GEO: At the crossroads once again" meeting. Non GSA's can be 'associate' departments which is supposed inter contract in Weekend. The reporters paint the members of GEO under the constitution alia, to supervise the leadership mend fe picture of a conflict between left wing because they are part of the em- (bargainers and steering committee), energy w communists (who Lenin accused of suf- ployment pool. This also creates the and to publish minutes of its biweekly fering from an infantile disorder), and opportunity for grad students who are meetings which are distributed to all rightwing reformists (always ready to not eligible for appointments or are capitulate to the establishment), with here with "free" money to get involved. most of the members left out in the Sometimes involvement relates to the{' cold. This was disturbing enough to social parts of contract issues like af- >Iii. $. / make me check up on things, to firmative action. discover that this was not really it at GEO has always tried to get a clause Letters to Weekend should betyp all. th rcnrc xlaesi:on this in the contract. The UniversityLeertoWkndsodbeyp First the procontract ex leadership: has always opposed it, but in recent signed. Unsigned letters will not be The University Bargainers are paid times no group has pushed harder for edited for length, clarity, and grammar professionals who have time and ex- this than GEO, whatever its leadership. perience on their side. If you are on the Affirmative action probably requires f {Y" i:."J:?;,,.::.+-,,.:_RrJ.J GEO- side it quickly gets to a point redefining university priorities, and ............... where if you haven't personally quit the has to be pursued by a broad based Weekend Weekend is edited and managed by students on the Weekend, (313) 7634 Fridoy, December 3, 1982 staff of The Michigan Daily at 420 Maynard, Ann Ar- Daily, 764-0552; Circulal Vol.Issue bor, Michigan, 48109. It appears in the Friday edition tising, 764-0554. Magazine Editor............ Richard Campbell of the Daily every week during the University year Assistant Editor...... .......... Benarand is available for free at many locations around the Copyright 1982, The M AssistatEior ......... ................. e Tco cm n iy campus and city. , . 3 Begun in 1967, that program is the most extensive in the country and offers a selection of between 12 and 14 courses each year from which students must choose at least two during their four years. The department's course on "Dying, Death, and Grief" examines various aspects of clinical care for dying patien- ts. It even offers students the chance to do volunteer work with these patients. But Penn State's program is not limited to medically oriented sources. In "Images of Aging," students examine what it feels like to be old by reading selections from such writers as Tennyson and Yeats, and by watching movies like Wild Strawberries and Harold and Maude. Other sources use religious theories program proves commitment to ethics through required coursework is feasible. Taren maintains, however, that it is not feasible and, in fact, is not particularly desirable. "Ethics are not best learned in the classroom with 225- plus students in one group. Teachers of human values want dialogue. We have the elective seminar and brown bag (discussions) to get that dialogue," he says. Beyond that, says Taren, the .only place to pick the training up is at work. "The content is best taught in the real world-in the patient care setting and the wards," he says. Pathology Prof. Gerald Abrams says the medical school has no responsibility to ethics training because such cour- sework should come in the un-. 14 Weekend/December 3, 1982