Jill, I r tit[ tINVA-lo 7rni One hundred three years of editorial freedom IMMMIM" . poll: State doctors oppose assisted-suicide ban Oin Assisted Suicilde A recent ISR survey of 336 physicians and 341 other Michigan residents gathered opinions on physician-assisted suicide. By MICHELLE LEE THOMPSON Daily Staff Reporter A University study may hold the answer to the unresolved question about the state's ban on assisted suicide. A study released yesterday by the Institute of Social Research (ISR) reports that two- thirds of the public and more than half of lichigan physicians favor a plan that would legalize physician-assisted suicide for termi- nally ill patients who suffer from extreme pain. "Most physicians would prefer not to have a ban," said Dr. Richard L. Lichtenstein, a co- investigator in the project. "The purpose of the study was for us to inform the Legislature on the attitudes of physicians in Michigan." The current law, which went into effect in February 1993, bans assisted suicide without exception. "These survey results should be very use- ful for future legislation or state policy," said Howard Brody, past chair of the Michigan Commission on Death and Dying. Brody also served as consultant to the University survey project. Although the issue has spurned contro- versy in many states, the Michigan ban was prompted by the actions of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. His attempts to remove the ban, which in- cluded fasting, have earned him the nick- name, "Dr. Death." Michigan's ban contains a sunset provi- sion, which means that it will expire in De- cember. This creates a new problem because the law's expiration also is being questioned in court. "It's not clear how that's going to lay out. It gets very complicated," said Dr. Jerald G. Bachman, co-investigator of the survey. The survey introduces three options for regulating physician-assisted suicide: a ban, no law or a compromise called "Plan A." Plan A would allow physicians to aid in a patient's suicide if the patient was in unac- ceptable pain. The plan includes certain safe- guards, including second opinions, explora- tion of management alternatives and two wit- nessed requests by the patient separated by a one-week waiting period. Recent proposals of Plan A in California and Washington both have been rejected by voters, but the initiative is not on the Novem- ber ballot in Michigan. "There's no reason for us to follow Wash- ington and California in terms of having a ballot," Lichtenstein said. Dr. David J. Doukas, another co-investi- gator of the mail-response survey, said he thinks Michigan lawmakers will take the institute's research seriously. State lawmak- ers are almost evenly split on the assisted- suicide issue. See SUICIDE, page 2 Physicians 28% 29% 26% go [ Definitely [~~ enactI Plan AI Probably enact Plan A [~ Uncertain General Public 40% 22% 2% 9% 3% 27% d [ Should bly definitely keep ted assisted le suicide illegal JONATHAN BERNDT/Daily Shout proba keep assis suicid illega j A look at the life of first-year students U.S. warns Haiti police on abuses Students bask in the sunshine yesterday on the Diag. Socializing i N. pIr ity stud .Apr w yf By JOSHUA GINSBERG Daily Staff Reporter New students at the University may be seeking a balance between work and play, but according to a first-year student survey, that balance tips toward recreation instead of edu- cation. The Reach Out Program, a phone survey focusing on the experiences of first-year students and transfer stu- nts at the University, began last year. The survey was given to 33 percent of last year's first-year stu- dents and 22 percent of last year's transfer students in October. Program coordinator Molly Nicholson organized the survey last year and will organize the 1994 pro- gram as well. "The primary purpose of the pro- am is to connect with students and ake their transition to the Univer- sity as smooth as possible," Nicholson said. "The secondary purpose of the program is to gather information about the experiences of first-year students." Among the survey's findings: 0 First-year students at the Uni- versity spend 19.22 hours a week studying and 21.91 hours socializing. According to the report, the most com- mon social activites were hanging out with friends, going out to dinner and going to parties. ® More than 50 percent of first- year students joined a club or organi- zation within the first month of school. "The amount of students involved in organizations was surprising," Nicholson said. First-year LSA student Jacob Gehl observed that most students he sees do more socializing than studying. He agreed with the study in regards to the number of students in clubs. "Students like to get involved in smaller clubs and organizations to bring the University down to a more personal level," Gehl noted. "I per- sonally don't feel that I have enough time, but some people who don't study The Washington Post PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.S. commanders warned Haiti's military leaders yesterday that con- tinued abuses of pro-American dem- onstrators will not be tolerated and drove home the warning with stepped- up U.S. patrols by machine-gun mounted vehicles along key roads in Port-au-Prince. Tens of thousands of Haitians again gathered on the waterfront over- looking the port and near the airport to watch U.S. troops unload tons of equipment and the thousands more soldiers pouring into Haiti as part of the three-day-old Operation Uphold Democracy. The Haitian police, who clubbed demonstrators in a running series of violent incidents Tuesday, were barely visible. They were mostly relegated to directing traffic. Officials in Washington scrambled to respond to televised images of the attacks. They said U.S. troops could take a far more aggressive posture in stemming such violence than they had only yesterday, when they said American forces essentially had no role in halting Haitian-on-Haitian vio- lence. A 1,000-man military police unit was to arrive Wednesday night to The Clinton administration faces more problems with the terms of Carter's agreement with the dicta- tors in Haiti. Page 7. Haitian Cities Atlantic Ocean 25 miles uave, Golfe de la 25 km Gonave HAITI Caribbean Sea. Port-au-Prince work closely with Haitian police to avoid repetition of Tuesday's abuses. The U.S. commander, Lt. Gen. Henry H. Shelton, called on the top Haitia military ruler, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, and told him, "The beatings of civil- ians must stop now," according to Col. Barry Willey, the U.S. Army spokesman here. Cedras replied that he understood, Willey added. Willey said Shelton also expressed strong displeasure with "inflamma- tory" broadcasts on Haitian govern- ment television and radio against the presence of U.S. troops. "These are significant steps inachieving our mis- sion here," Willey said. "We fully expect Cedras to comply." The new resolve came after the Americans were embarrassed by Tuesday's beatings hours after the U.S. military had praised Cedras for his cooperation in allowing Ameri- can forces into Haiti and had por- trayed U.S. forces as working in co- See HAITI, Page 2 CHRIS WOLF/Daily The sun beckons in the background as a student rushes through the dark Law Library. as much or organize their time more effectivley can work it out." Gary Silber, another first-year LSA student, questioned the report's precision. "The amount of time spent studying or partying varies from week to week. It's impossible to tell from statistics." Silber suggested that socializing may be more important for new stu- dents because they are trying to adjust See STUDY, Page 2 Prosecutors shelf case against pop superstar Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES - Ending months of speculation, prosecutors X nounced yesterday they have closed eir child molestation investigation of entertainer Michael Jackson, but said the inquiry uncovered two more possible victims and stressed authori- ties are prepared to reopen the case if any of the children decide they are willing to testify. They conceded that the chances of that appear remote, however, and said 1eir efforts to prosecute Jackson ul- mately were stymied when the boy who made the initial complaint against the singer decided he did not want to testify. "We have concluded that because the young boy who was the catalyst fr.. Chic in,,ay.tmnn hnc rnrr.ntl ;r New LGBPO chief asks 'U' to 'walk the walk' In addition to receiving a new name this year, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Programs Office wel- comes a new director, Ronni Sanlo. Sanlo comes to the University with 15 years of political and counseling work to her credit. As the first choice to fill the vacancy left by Jim Toy - who retired last spring after 20 years of service - Sanlo has the task of maintaining the strength of the oldest lesbian, gay and bisexual student office in the country. Daily Staff Reporter Kelly Feeney interviewed Sanlo yesterday afternoon. Q: What caused you to leave your job as head of an AIDS surveillance program in Florida and come to Ann Arbor? A: This position. When I saw the job advertised last January, I said to myself, "This is my job!" And, I knew that everything else, including apply- ing and interviewing were all formalities because I knew it was my job. The job description described me. Had I written a description of the job I wanted for myself, it was this job in its entirety. I've been very involved with lesbian, gay and bisexual poli- tics, civil rights and education for the 15 years that I've been out. Q: What is LGBPO's purpose? A: I think the purpose has changed over time. At first, our purpose was certainly incredible advo- cacy in making sure that people were even saying the words lesbian, gay or bisexual. I think now the purpose is to institutionalize the concepts of change that we've tried to create over the 23 years of the history of the program. Institutionalize, for ex- ample, making sure that students at this university receive an excellent education, making sure that nothing stands in the way of that, including dis- crimination and bigotry. My focus, and the focus of this office, is to be sure that lesbian, gay and bisexual students fall into that category of being recipients of excellent education without having to experience the pain of isolation and hatred and all of the awful, negative things we tend to feel when we're young, lesbian, gay, bisexual people. Q: Do you see discrimination against lesbians, gays and bisexuals as at the University? A: Of course. Discrimination is probably even worse now from the perspective that it's very subtle and covert. It's real easy to deal with concepts of discrimination when people are out there scream- ing at us and beating us up, which they still are, but not to previous extent. In the Ann Arbor area and on at the university, there are laws and policies prohib- iting sexual-orientation discrimination, so now the discrimination becomes much more subtle. See SANLO, page 2 INSIDE Jackson tion in the wake of allegations that he sexually molested a 13-year-old boy over a period of several months in 1993. Jackson faced simultaneous crimi- nal investigation and civil action be- cause of those allegations; he settled the civil case for millions of dollars earlier this year but only yesterday saw the criminal case finally come to a close. In a statement, Jackson said: "I am thnnkfl at th invp;- i,;ti;n ha Defeat a 'wake-up call' for Dems, may force early adjourmuent Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - The defeat of liberal Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.) in a primary con- test Tuesday served as a "wake-up call" for group and was regarded one of the most effecti members of the House,] a run-off to Virgil Coop LOCAL NEWS The Daily introduces a ne column on what's new around college campus. Today: Looking for the 3 VS wCollege - SBriefs x .y per