4 Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 18, 1986 SCIENCE Speakers discuss medical issues By DOV COHEN AND ROBERT STONE "You are taking on all the woes of the 1980's in the course of one day," a speaker told an audience of pre-med students at a conference on ethics, humanism, and medicine. Saturday's conference at the School of Public Health featured speakers who addressed a terminally ill patient's right to die, the effect of malpractice suits on the quality of medical treatment, and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. DAVID VELLEMAN, an assistant philosophy professor, spoke to a seemingly hostile audience about a patient's right to die. Pacing back and forth on the stage, Velleman said he is not against the mercy killing of those in an irreversible coma or in intrac- table pain, but he denounced other in- stances where a patient might con- sider death as an alternative to treatment. Velleman said society is to blame if a patient considers death an option. He said a patients claim to the right of self-determination is just a "smoke IT'S GREAT HAIRSTYLES BY LICENSED BARBER STYLISTS - new creations at reasonable prices DASCOLA STYLISTS Maple Village . 761 2733 Liberty off State............668-9329 screen," and the fact that the patient makes the choice does not absolve society of its moral responsibility. The burden of health care costs will be relieved if the sick and elderly die, so society urges them to die, he said. "We have no role in our society for the elderly." CITING A hypothetical example of a kidney dialysis patient, Velleman said, "He tries to play the only role there is. He wants to play the role of the Pepsi generation. We've elimina- ted the role of the elderly homebound person. We're so self-centered, we don't have time to care for our paren- ts," he said. "Society gains a tremendous amount if (the sick and elderly) die, and society can make it worth their while to die. They're gone. No problem. I find this frightening," he said. Kurt Turner, a member of the audience, signed a living will in 1974 that orders doctors to "pull the plug" if he ever lapses into a coma. TURNER, WHO has been on a kid- ney machine for 16 years and had a stroke 11 years ago, said he has the right to die if he chooses. "It's my body damnit - I have the right to refuse treatment." Turner said his fear comes "partly from seeing how machines kept people 'alive but not alive.' I don't want that kind of life," he said. "Medical technology can do so many things that don't take into con- sideration the spirit and will of the person. One of the worst things that scares me is that I'll be incapacitated and won't be involved in the decision." Earlier in the day June Osborne, dean of the School of Public Health, warned that harassment of AIDS vic- tims may turn AIDS into "an un- derground epidemic.'' JILL JOSEPH, a School of Public Health professor, estimated that there are one to two million carries of the AIDS virus. "We need to under- stand that there is no immunization available, no cure. (Controlling the spread of AIDS) is entirely dependent on behavioral change for those at risk and probably maintenance of that change for the rest of their lives." To affect and maintain this change, potential AIDS victims will need counseling and testing services, but they will not use these services if "we stigmatize, ostracise, and penalize," Joseph said. Joseph said the control of AIDS can be hampered by laws that single AIDS victims out as pariahs. "One of the things being considered (in the legislature) now is: If you test positive to an (AIDS) test, you have to give the names of all your partners" to the doctor, she said. Laws like this will only drive away potential AIDS victims, eventually, "putting our- selves at a higher risk." THE SPEAKERS said health care officials may contribute to the stigma of AIDS victims. "We have a panic every time we admit an AIDS patient," said Al Dallaire, a nurse at Flint Osteopathic Hospital. "You can educate hospital workers umpteen zillion times and the first time they have to treat a patient with AIDS, it's inevitably hysteria," said Evelyn Fisher of Henry Ford Hospital. On the topic of medical malprac- tice, Dr. Louis Zako attributed the soaring number of suits to an "I'll sue the bastard" attitude prevailing in society. In the past eight years the number of claims against physicians has in- creased from five to 23 per 100 doc- tors. Pension has S. African stocks (Continued from Pagel1) chairwoman for the Association of Concerned African Scholars. "THE financial penalties for with- drawing your money is too much to - -- --AVAILA s . a ask," she said. "Often you literally cannot take out your money until you retire at all, or at least without severe financial penalties." Instead, she said, the steering committee is calling on faculty and staff to take "political measures," to push TIAA-CREF itself to divest. The faculty's Senate Assembly at Dar- tmouth College, for example, unanimously supported divestment by TIAA-CREF last November. The question over divestment, Brinkerhoff said, seems to be a re- hash of previous debates about the issue. "It's a philosophical difference, in that we think the best way to promote changes in South Africa is through keeping our influence as BLE NOW BORLAND products for the IBM PC. including: Turbo Pascal ................$54.95 Turbo Light.......... . . ....$74.95 Reflex ......... ......$74.95 Sidekick . . . . . . . ...... . . .. . $63.50 Discount Computer Software and Supplies ATARI 1040 ST The power without the price CHELSEA COMPUTER (above Bivouac) 334 S. State St. 663-0090 HOURS Mon.- Sat. 10-6 Sun. closed 322 S. STATE ST. (inside the Jewelry Exchange) 663-4788 shareholders in the corporations that do business there. To divest has little effect because we pull out, and another investor just takes our place." A POLICY statement by TIAA- CREF echoes Brinkerhoff's sen- timents. "Someone else buys the stock and after the seller has made a moral statement and garnered media headlines, the company's businesses undoubtedly goes on as usual, but without a large articulate shareholder such as TIAA-CREF to continue pressing corporate management to combat apartheid," the policy statement said. The program's directors, said Claire Sheahan, a press officer for TIAA- CREF, feel that change can be best promoted by urging corporations to follow the Sullivan Principles, a series of guidelines to promote integrated and better working conditions for black South African workers. TIAA-CRED also urges cor- porations to publically denounce such characteristics of apartheid as requiring that most blacks live in "homelands" away from white- populated areas. TO ENFORCE these principles, she said, TIAA-CRED has been pressuring corporations to either follow the Sullivan Principles or leave South Africa. She said that since last October, 22 of 43 corporations that had not signed the Sullivan Principles finally signed; five others withdrew from the coun- try, and two had not responded in writing. Sheahan said the program filed shareholder resolutions urging the remaining 13 corporations to sign the principles or pull out of the country. "It's important to remember that we think of the Sullivan Principals as a minimum, not an end-all of the problem. If these corporations are not willing to do the minimum to promote change in South Africa, we think they should get out." BUT opponents of these measures say that the Sullivan Pinciples are virtually worthless, and that by staying in the country, corporations help keep the system of apartheid in power. "The Sullivan Principles affect only a tiny minority of blacks in South Africa. Only a fraction of 1 percent work for American corporations there," Root said. "These corporations produce com- puters, technology for the gover- nment, and all the things they need to stay in power." "We're asking TIAA-CREF to take a real stand against apartheid," she said. Correction Alan Wald, a professor of English at the University, was one of 39 people arrested for protesting aid to the Nicaraguan Contras at Congressman Carl Pursell's office last Friday. A photo caption in Monday's Daily neglected to identify him as a faculty member. The Conference on the Holocaust is sponsored by a large number of chur- ches, synagogues, some University offices and departments, and in- dividuals, not just the Hillel Found- IN BRIEF COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS AND UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL REPORTS Reagan: Polls in Central America back Contra aid President Reagan said yesterday that polls in Central America show his plan to give $100 million in aid to the Contra rebels has the over- whelming support of the people in the countries closest to Nicaragua With a critical House vote on the aid only three days away, Reagan said the polls, commissioned by the U.S. Information Agency and bankrolled by American taxpayers, showed "over 90 percent of the people" in some countries support his policy, including renewed military aid to the guerrillas battling the Marxist-led Sandinista government in Managua. Nicaragua's official press condemned President Reagan's Sunday night speech on Contra rebels, saying he used "lies and slander" to try to justify $100 million in new aid to the guerrillas fighting the Managua government. American supporters and opponents of the aid program are both claiming public support is in their favor. U.S. releases Marcos files A judge in New York yesterday denied a request for a restraining or- der, clearing the way for the Justice Department to turn over to the new Philippines government and Congress documents detailing the wealth of former president Ferdinand Marcos. The denial by Judge Dominick DiCarlo of the Court of International Trade was issued just hours before the Justice Department was scheduled to release the documents. The department filed a memo in Hawaii Saturday stating its intention to release them at 5 p.m. yesterday. It did not specify whether the release would take place in Hawaii or elsewhere. The documents were seized by U.S. Customs officials when Marcos, his family and friends fled the Philippines to Hawaii last month after 20 years in power. The new government of President Corazon Aquino was asked for the in- formation as part of its effort to recover what it claims is millions of dollars Marcos looted from the treasury of the Philippines. Mitterand to choose premier PARIS- Socialist President Francois Mitterand, faced with the task of governing with a hostile parliament, said he would choose a new premier from the conservative ranks today. Mitterand will become the first president in Fifth Republic historyto govern with a parliament in opposition. In a television address to the nation last night, Mitterand took note of the razor-thin parliamentary majority won by the right in elections, saying, "There is a new majority. It is numerically weak, but it exists." The rightist alliance does not include the extreme-right National Front. Nearly complete results from Sunday's voting for a new 577-seat National Assembly gave 291 seats in all to the center-right coalition of the Rally for the Republic, the Union for French Democracy, and a smat- tering of rightist political independents-an uncomfortably small, three- seat margin and the smallest parliamentary advantage in the 28-year history of the Fifth Republic. Pre-election polls had predicted the rightist coalition would win as many as 15 more seats. OPEC suspends urgent talks GENEVA- OPEC ministers, unable to agree on a stbtegy for rever- sing a traumatic drop in oil prices, suspended an emergency meeting yesterday for at least one day, reflecting what cartel sources called major disagreements among the 13 members. Arturo Hernandez Grisanti, oil minister of Venezuela and president of OPEC, said the break was needed to allow the group's technical experts to reassess the outlook for oil demand. Delegation sources, speaking on condition they not be identified, said the request for a new report from OPEC's technical experts was a stalling tactic that showed the sharp divisions within the cartel. There were unconfirmed rumors that cartel members were close to a production sharing agreement under which prices would stabilize bet- ween $15 and $20 a barrel. It was not clear where the rumors originated and they appeared to conflict with the atmosphere of uncertainty the session had created so far. Chicago City Council elections plagued by violence CHICAGO-Campaigning for special ward elections that could give Mayor Harold Washington control of the City Council drew to a close yesterday, marred bya gang shooting that followed complaints of fraud and violence. A young gang member was charged with attempted murder after police said he had fired a shot into a crowd around a campaigning cand- idate for alderman. "It's almost like whoever stays alive is going to be the next alderman up here," said Patrolman Raymond Heyn. "I thought we had elections to settle these things." Today's ward elections coincide with party primaries for the U.S. Senate, Illinois' 22 congressional districts, governor and other statewide offices. Most races have sparked little interest and election officials predicted a low voter turnout. The ward elections are the latest battlegrounds in a conflict between the city's first black mayor and power broker Edward Vrdolyak, a white alderman who has led a 29-member council majority bloc in revolt again- st Washington. 01 Ie'£iclpgau BuIV~ Vol. XCVI - No. 113 The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967 X) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms. Subscription rates: September through April-$18 in Ann Arbor; $35 outside the city. One term-$10 in town; $20 outside the city. 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