The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 9, 1994 - 3

*Red Cross reports
low blood supplies

MSA votes to
keep Kevorkian
off election ballot

r Washtenaw County
reports an urgent
need for blood after
the limited success
of its original appeal
By JULIE MAZUR
.OR THE DAILY
A sharp drop in blood donations
across the country has spurred the worst
national blood shortage since World
War II.
Washtenaw County's American
Red Cross donor center in Ann Arbor
was one of several which joined the
American Association of Blood Banks
laissuing a national emergency appeal
last month. Although Washtenaw
County is no longer on emergency
appeal, the center is continuing to push
for donations.
According to a press release from
the American Red Cross, which pro-
vides half the nation's blood supply,
0national inventories have fallen to only
50 percent of their usual January/Feb-.
ruary levels.
"We must sustain the nationwide
increase in donors if we are to emerge
from this critical shortage," wrote Red
Cross President Elizabeth Dole in the
January 12 release. "It is more impor-
tant than ever that people who are
healthy respond as they have done in
the past."
Ann Arbor is part of the Red Cross'
Southeastern Michigan region, encom-
passing the five counties ofWashtenaw,
Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and St.
Clair.
The region's eight permanent do-
nor centers and 13 bloodmobiles are
responsible for providing 59 hospitals
with 1,000 units of blood each day. A
unit is equal to about one pint.
"We haven't been able to achieve
our needs," said Cornelia Fry, one of
Ann Arbor's two Red Cross represen-
tatives.
"Since Christmas ourbloodmobiles
have been falling about 100 units be-
hind their goal each day."
Meeting daily quotients is crucial
as blood has a shelf life of only 42 days
and supplies must be constantly re-
newed.
According to Fry, the critical short-
age began just before Christmas when
numerousdonationswere canceled due

to severe weather conditions, power
outages and illness.
The weather also affected neigh-
boring regions whose blood shipments
are needed to meet the demands of
Southeastern Michigan's concentration
of hospitals.
Over New Year's weekend the
Washtenawdonorcenterwent on emer-
gency appeal.
"Washtenaw County has been more
than generous in answering our plea,"
said Fry. "Our usual goal is 30 pints per
day, but since going on emergency
appeal this center has been taking in
40-45 pints per day."
Community response has allowed
the Washtenaw center to go off its
emergency appeal, although Fry
stressed that there is still an urgent need
for blood.
"The current blood drives on cam-
pus are going very well," Fry said, "but
to get out of this slump we need another
two weeks of good collection days."
According to a Feb. 1 article in The
New York Times, some 4 million pa-
tients receive transfusions each year in
this country, using over 14 million
units of blood.
Due to lowered blood supplies,
however, doctors are being forced to
use blood more judiciously.
"We're feeling the impact brecause
blood isn't as plentiful as it should be,"
said Harold Oberman, professor of
Pathology and director of the Univer-
sity Medical Center's Blood Bank and
Transfusion Services.
"We ask physicians to be conserva-
tive in their use of blood," he said, "and
consult with medical staff as to whether
some transfusions are necessary."
Hospital staff must also maintain
large volumes of blood for such depart-
ments as trauma, transplant and car-
diac surgery which often need blood on
an emergency basis, Oberman said.
Although many blame the current
shortage on winter storms and illness,
several cities issuing emergency ap-
peals were unaffected by severe
weather, such as those in Florida and
Puerto Rico, and critics fear the short-
age may have deeper roots.
"The blood shortage has been espe-
cially acute for the past six months,"
said Oberman, "so it can't be seasonal.
I don't know why people aren't giving
as they should, unless it's because of an

JONATHAN LURIE/Datty
Blood sits in a refrigerator at the University Hospital's Blood Bank. There is
currently a shortage of blood nationwide.

By RONNIE GLASSBERG
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Students for Dr. Kevorkian went
back yesterday evening to the place
where they first began their campaign
- the Michigan Student Assembly,
and they received a "yes" and "no"
vote from the assembly.
MSA unanimously approved a
motion to spend $500 to help support
bringing Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian's
attorney, to speak at Hillel late next
month.
But the assembly voted 12-8 against
a proposal that would have allowed
students to vote on inviting Kevorkian
to speak on campus and giving him an
honorary degree.
Students for Dr. Kevorkian Presi-
dent Dennis Denno criticized the as-
sembly for its nay vote.
"I guess MSA isn't really a repre-
sentative body because if they were
they would allow the student body to
vote on this issue," he said.
Rackham second-year student
James Piazza echoed Denno's view.
"I'm really disappointed with
MSA," he said. "They have basically
decided for the students that they aren't
going to decide."
But many representatives had a
problem with bringing Kevorkian or
with putting the issue on the ballot.
"I would not attend graduation if he
was on this campus," said Kinesiology
Rep. Dani Walsh.
LSA Rep. Jacob Stern also spoke
against the measure, but with different
reasoning. He said that allowing Stu-
dents for Dr. Kevorkian would mean
the assembly would have to support
any other group that wanted to put a
candidate on the ballot for commence-
ment speaker.
The referendum, which was pro-
posed by LSA Rep. David Pava, would
have had students vote on the issue
during student-wide elections, March
22 and 23.
MSA Vice President Brian Kight
supported putting the issue to the stu-
dents.
"I don't support Kevorkian, but I
think this should go on the ballot," he

Rep. E4
Michael Bruno
Engineering
" Mark Buchan
Rackham
r Tanya Clay
LISA
8 Brian Clune
LSa
Marcus
Evangelista
Business
* Dan Gustein
Reckham
Stephanie Logan
LSA
8 Jeff Parker
Education
Jon Uy
Medicine
Matthew Wong
LSA

lcted
w

5

W 6
w 6
W 11
w 5
F 12

w
F

6
12

F 11

F

The following is a list of MSA
reps. with five or more
absences. Representatives are
removed after 12 absences.

7

ill-founded fear that they can be hurt by
donating."
Perhaps a more pressing factor, said
Fry, is that potential donors lack motiva-
tion. "People aren't going to donate un-
less I go where they live," she said.
"They just seem to need one-to-one con-
tact. When I ask people why they've
never donated blood the most common
response is 'no one's ever asked me to."'
Records show the number of dona-
tions have been shrinking in recent years.
In the Southeastern Michigan region,
the Red Cross was forced to import
almost 19 percent of their 1993 blood
supply to meet demand, compared with
only 3 percent needed to meet similar
demand a decade earlier.
There will be campus blood drives
on Feb. 9 at the Dental school from 9
a.m.-3 p.m, and at the Michigan League
from 11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.For more
information, contact the Red Cross at
971-1500.

This chart shows the annual
decline in pints of blood
collected by the American Red
Cross of Southeastern
Michigan. Last year's collection
rates wereseight percent below
the previous year.
248,983
250,000
230,000
220,000 19,800*
210,000
200,000

Source: MSA Rules & Elections
said. "I have absolutely no problem of
having the students' decide."
Despite the assembly's opposition
to this issue, MSA supported spending
allotting $500 to help bring Fieger to
campus.
The event will be held March 21 in
Hillel's Irwin Green Auditorium and is
also sponsored by Students for Dr.
Kevorkian, Hillel, the Jewish Law Stu-
dents' Union and the Jewish Medical
Students' Association.
"We think it's an important issue
for the campus andwe were approached
as a co-sponsor," said Jewish Law Stu-
dents' Union President Jeff Schlussel.
Schlussel said the event will be free
and will be in a debate format. He also
said the possibility still exists for a
debate between Fieger and University
Law Prof. Yale Kamisar on the issue of
euthanasia.
Even if this falls through, the for-
mat still will be one that questions
Fieger's views, Schlussel said.

U0
00

ANDREW TAYLOR/Daiy


Phillipines recovering after U.S. pullout

Deling Weller
describes the
continuing effects
of the American
military pullout from
the Phillipines
By SOMA GUPTA.
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
When American troops pulled out
from the Philipines, the country was
in a state of economic and political
chaos. Almost two years after the last
American soldier left the war-torn
state, it is starting its recovery.
University faculty member Deling
Weller, who lived in the Philippines
for several months, described the
people she met as hopeful because of
a resurge in nationalism.
Her speech is one of the weekly
international forums sponsored by the
Campus Ecumenical Center.
The center has sponsored forums
every week for the past 34 years,

inviting international students, faculty
or special guests to speak about a for-
eign place.
Weller, who is coordinator of the
Philippine studies group at the Center
for South and Southeast Asian Studies,
said many people wondered about the
future of the country.
"What will happen after the Ameri-
cans pullout? Everyone asked this ques-
tion over there," Weller said. "Since
1970 the peace and order situation has
deteriorated but before that it used to be
the center of politics and culture in that
part of Asia."
Weller said the Filipinos have tried
to take hold of their future by investing
in the rich natural resources their coun-
try possesses.
Because of this, the Filipino people
are experiencing a great feeling of na-
tionalism that will help the country
recover from its present economical
and political trouble.
"The new surge of nationalism is
powerful and the people are trying to
improve the economicstate by making

use of valuable natural resources," she
said.
She also mentioned that the Ameri-
can bases will probably be developed
when the appropriate investors come
along. It is presently a free trade zone.
"There is still hope for the Philip-
pines because of the resurgence of na-
tionalism, natural resources - the
people will make it happen that this
country will rise again," Weller said.
She emphasized that the Philippinos
do not seem upset with the Americans
because of the state of the Philippines
today.
"The Americans provided a good
health care system, a good educational
system and some sense of religion,"
she said. "Even if the bases are out of
the country, it does notmean the people
of the Philippines are angry with Ameri-
cans.
"If the bases stayed, they would
continue to dictate our political and
economic future. If they are gone we
can do whatever it is we think we can
do," Weller added.

Deling Weller gives a slide show presentation at the International Center in the Union.

Correction
A statement about the sale of CAT in the Sojourner Truth Co-Op was incorrectly attributed in yesterday's Daily.

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