The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 4, 1994 - 3
*Michigan Supreme Court to hear oral arguments on assisted suicide
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - For 19
months, cancer patient Teresa
Hobbins has been part of the legal
battle over assisted suicide.
She'll be listening intently today
as six lawyers take turns trying to
convince the Michigan Supreme Court
o agree with their side on the issue.
Yet, the Lansing woman knows
:she might not live long enough to hear
:a final answer, from the U.S. Su-
preme Court.
"I hope that's not the case, but I
know it's a possibility and to be quite
candid, the disease has taken a turn
for the worse. That's OK. That's ex-
pected," said Hobbins, 44.
"I've held out for eight years. I can
only hope it's going to be another
eight, but it's not going to be, it's just
not going to be."
Hobbins, her friend, Marie
DeFord, and Ken Shapiro, of East
Lansing, joined a number of medical
professionals in a civil lawsuit chal-
lenging the state's ban on assisted
suicide.
The American Civil Liberties
Union of Michigan filed the lawsuit
on their behalf.
Lower courts and the Michigan
Court of Appeals have struck the law
down on technical grounds. In its 2-1
ruling on May 10, the appeals court
also refused to find a constitutional
right to assisted suicide.
Along with the civil lawsuit, the
seven-member court will hear argu-
ments on three criminal cases involv-
ing Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has been
present at 20 deaths.
One of them is whether the 66-
year-old retired pathologist should
face two counts of murder for two
deaths before the assisted suicide ban
took effect in 1993.
Kevorkian is expected to be at
today's two-hour arguments, the first
of the court's 1994-95 session.
Hobbins and Shapiro, also a can-
cer patient, said they expected the
high court to strike down the law as
unconstitutional on technical grounds,
and hope the justices would agree that
there's a right to assisted suicide.
"How can you have Roe versus
Wade as the law of the land, entailing
a third entity and have abortion legal,
when this involvesjustone individual,
who, no matter what is done, is going
to die? How can one be legal and not
the other?" Shapiro said.
"The person who's going to pay
the price is me. I have the ultimate
price to pay, so I should be able to
choose," Hobbins said. "I'm compe-
tent. I've made the decision. I'm not
going to let that disease kill me the
way it can."
"1 tjiink you almost have to come
up with a different category as op-
posed to using the word suicide. I
don't think suicide is what I'm talk-
ing about and I don't want to put it in
the same class as suicide.
I am dying. we need to deal with
death and we need to deal with inevi-
table death.
DeFord said it enrages her when
those who don't know Hobbins call
her a coward or say allowing assisted
suicide will lead to depressed people
seeking it out.
"That's not fair. We've got spe-
cial issues here. We're talking about
an entirely different group of people
than a teen-aaer whose girlfriend just
broke up with them," she said. "I
think it tends to diminish their pain or
their agony."
Students, faculty recall
former 'U'
English faculty
member for 25 years
died last summer,
remembered
yesterday at Union
By RYAN FIELDS4
For the Daily
The English department yester-
day held a memorial service for Prof.
James Gindin. Gindin died at his home
July 30 at age 68.
More than 100 faculty and stu-
dents crowded the small room in the
Union to pay tribute to Gindin.
Gindin began teaching in the En-
glish department at the University in4
1956. Tenured as a full professor in
1968, he made a mark on the Univer-
sity, colleagues said.
As a professor and as chairman of
the English Honors Program for 25 Crown of the H
years, Gindin was remembered by Warner C. R
many of the people he touched. sor at the Unive
During the brief time he assumed the English Dep
the role of director of the University- remembered hi
wide Honors Program, Gindin coun- derful friend.
seled students while overseeing the "He was one
program. department. Hi
"It was delightful to have him with canny ability to
us. Professor Gindin was a wonderful remembered for
man to have around," said Eleanor a wonderful mar
dept. chair
OWN..,
ated with."
During his career at the Univer-
sity, speakers said Gindin touched
many people's lives. "He was abso-
lutely essential in the life of the En-
glish Department," said Lincon Faller,
associate chair of the English Depart-
ment, "but moreover he was an excel-
lent colleague."
Outside the University, Gindin was
a noted literary scholar and critic. He
authored numerous essays, reviews
and several books, most recently
"John Galsworthy's Life and Art: An
Alien's Fortress."
His reputation as a scholar
stretched internationally. Gindin was
a recipient of a Fulbright lectureship,
a National Endowment for the Hu-
manities Senior Fellowship, and a
Guggenheim Fellowship. From 1954
to 1955, he was on the staff of "The
New Yorker" magazine.
The memorial service featured
speakers associated with Gindin in
his tenure at the University. Martha
Vicinus, the current chair of the De-
partment of English, called Gindin an
"extraordinary human being."
Gindin's daughter, Katherine-
Gindin, read from one of her father's
works, "The English Climate."
onors Program.
dice, a former profes-
rsity and chairman of
partment for 20 years,
s colleague as a won-
of the stalwarts of the
s work ethic and un-
touch others will be
r generations. He was
in to have been associ-
Science adviser to President Clinton M.R.C. Greenwood addresses a crowd at Rackham Amphitheater yesterday.
Clinton aide calls for focus
on science, math education
Demby starts 'Investing
in Abilities' week events
By MARIA KOVAC
Daily Staff Reporter
M.R.C. Greenwood's science lec-
Jre in the Rackham Amphitheater
yesterday wasn't filled with formulas
or molecular structures.
Greenwood, associate director for
science in President Clinton's Office
of Science and Technology Policy,
came to the University as a guest
lecturer for the second in the National
Research Policy Lecture Series.
She addressed issues raised in the
elinton administration's newest sci-
ence policy, "Science in the National
Interest," before the faculty-heavy
audience.
The policy's agenda proposes
goals for maintaining and increasing
the United States' competitiveness in
science, mathematics and engineer-
ing. This is to be done, Greenwood
said, by raising public interest in re-
'if we are not able to
reach our educational
goals in increasing
scientific literacy, we
are at risk.'
- M.R.C. Greenwood
Clinton adviser
search and putting more emphasis on
math and science education.
"If we are not able to reach our
educational goals in increasing scien-
tific literacy, we are at risk," Green-
wood said.
She reasoned that it is essential for
the average citizen to understand sci-
ence that is related to their own health
or other aspects of everyday life.
Greenwood insisted that it is a
critical time to be concentrating on
research despite budget constraints.
With the end of the Cold War, the
United States has decreased defense
research and increased other aspects
of scientific study.
"I'm here to solicit your help,"
Greenwood said.
Greenwood spent the morning in
class discussion with University sci-
ence students.
"I listened to your undergraduate
students tell me about their research
opportunities. They think they're go-
ing to change the world and I believe
they will," she said.
The President's Committee of Ad-
visors on Science and Technology hopes
to institute the goals of the policy through
suggestions of the scientific commu-
nity and other interested parties.
Greenwood's lecture was sponsored
by the University's Office of the Vice
President for Research.
By BRAD SPARKS
For the Daily
Bill Demby is a Vietnam veteran,
a father, a world-class athlete, and a
motivational speaker. He is also handi-
capped, having both of his legs ampu-
tated from the knee down.
Demby kicked off the University's
Investing in Abilities Week with a
speech to 40 people at the Michigan
Union yesterday.
He first gained national promi-
nence in 1987 when he was featured
in a commercial for DuPont, playing
basketball on his artificial legs.
Demby, who lost both of his legs
during the Vietnam War, has com-
peted in many wheelchair marathons
and road races. He holds national
amputee records in the shot put, dis-
cus and javelin.
He is also a certified ski instructor
for the Handicap Sports and Recre-
ation Association.
Demby spoke about the problems
and barriers that handicapped people
face everyday.
"We're trying to close the gap
between you and us. I think (people
with disabilities) have two problems.
One, architectural barriers, stairs,
curbs, doors that are not wide enough.
... Four inches to us is like a mountain
to you. We want to be a part of your
world; we want to share it. The sec-
ond problem we have, attitude."
Demby considers the 49 million
handicapped people in this country to
be the newest minority on the block.
Just like other minorities, they must
fight for their rights and respect.
"If you're gonna judge me and I
can't get a good job, I can't send my
daughter to a nice school like this. We
all want the same things."
Demby was a high school basket-
ball player who dreamed of playing in
college and competing professionally
someday.
His high school counselor told him
he wasn't college material academi-
cally and that he should try to get a job
in a factory.
Today, Demby has a college de-
gree and travels the nation as a spokes-
man for both disabled people and
Vietnam veterans. He took part in the
1988 Paralympics - the Olympics
for disabled people - in Seoul, Ko-
rea.
"My dream is one day that we will
compete not against, but side by side
our Olympic athletes. I will not see
that in my lifetime."
Demby told the audience that
Americans must band together to help
fight for the rights of handicapped
people.
"Itis not important that Bill Demby
lost two legs; what is important is
what he is capable of doing and that
you give him a chance. You're the
ones that can make the difference,
helping us to make the changes," he
said.
# orrection and Clarification
SNRE first-year student Shawn Bobick was quoted in the Monday, Sept. 26 issue in a story about drinking titled,
"Under 2l and drinking? Lots of rules, few punishments." He was quoted as describing his own drinking habits. Bobick
did not make these statements about drinking. These statements should have been attributed to someone else. The Daily
regrets the misquotation.
Group Meetings
Q U-M Gospel Chorale Rehears-
als, School of Music, Room
2038, 7:30-9:30, 764-1705
Q Thai Students Association
Weekly planning Meeting,
Michigan Union, Michigan
Room, 6 p.m., 663-7299
Q University Students Against
Cancer Mass Meeting, Michi-
gan Union, Kuenzel Room, 7
p.m.
Q U-M College Republicans
Meeting, Michigan League,
Henderson Room, 6:30 p.m.,
763-3886
Q U-M Medical Students Panel,
exhibit, North Campus Com-
mons Atrium, 7 a.m.-l 1 p.m.
Q "People with Disabilities: In-
formation from Insiders,"
Michigan Union, Pond Room,
3-4:30 p.m.
Q "An Attempt to Teach Skepti-
cism to Identify Humbugs and
Development and Use of the
Extra-Corporeal Membrane
Oxygenators," Prof. Richard
L. Malvin and Prof. Robert H.
Bartlett, Denatal Building,
Room G378, 7:30 p.m.
Q Anne Le Claire, Reading and
book signing, Borders Books
and Music, 612 E. Liberty St.,
Q Campus Information Center,
Michigan Union, 763-INFO;
events info., 76-EVENT; film
info., 763-FILM.
1 North Campus Information
Center, 763-NCIC, 7:30 a.m.-
5:30 p.m.
J Psychology Academic Peer Ad-
vising, West Quad, Room
K103, walk-ins welcome orcall
747-3711 for appointment.
Q Safewalk, 936-1000, UGLi
lobby, 8 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.
Q Career Planning and Place-
ment, M-LINE info session,
Angell Hall, Aud A,8:10-9 a.m.,
Writing .EffectiveCover Let-
U-M Part Time Students
There's a special grant for you!
The Michigan Adult Part-Time Grant
Benefits Michigan Residents Who:
* have been out of high school
for more than two years
y< * demonstrate financial need
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