LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 13, 1996 -3
Doctors propose ballot issue on assisted suicide
North Campus
om puters
vandgazed
Computers on North Campus were
issing various functions and screens
Wednesday.
The Department of Public Safety
reported that several unknown persons
entered the North Campus computing
center sometime between Tuesday
'tening and Wednesday morning. The
individuals "erased 20 bookmarks off
the Netscape computer," according to
1)PS reports.
Other computers in the facility were
*so tampered with. DPS officials stat-
ed that only authorized individuals with
a key should be allowed to access the
center.
Students taken to
emergency room
Several female students were trans-
4orted to. the emergency room of the
edical Center in separate incidents
Wednesday.
One female student experienced
"shortness of breath and numbness in
ier arms and legs at the Martha Cook
R"sidence Hall on South University
Avenue. The student reported that she
felt "her shunt is blocked."
On East University Avenue, a
female student was seen lying on the
restroom floor of the fourth floor of
est Hall. The student requested an
ambulance.
She was conscious and breathing,
but she was unable to stand due to an
unknown medical problem, according
to reports from DPS.
in the inner circle of Stone Drive, a
fimale student was on a basketball
"ckurt with a possible broken leg. DPS
officials were unable to report the
cause of her accident.
9 The Huron Valley Ambulance trans-
~-ported all three female students in dif-
ferent cases to the University Medical
Center for treatment.
Car theft may be
a joyride
A male student reported that his
frMend "may have taken his vehicle."
A~he car, a l985 Buick Park Avenue,
as parked in the Baits I lot at Thyme
House.
The student said he last saw his car at
I a.m. The vehicle was later returned to
the lot, and DPS reported that there was
no damage to the vehicle.
Candy stolen from
roken machine
A candy machine in Couzens Hall
'vas broken by an unknown party
Wednesday. The machine was appar-
eritly "wide open, and people are help-
eidg themselves to foodstuffs," accord-
ing to DPS reports.
The unlocked machine was located
in the game room on the first floor of
ftihe hall.
4Far window,
stereo broken
A car outside Mary Markley
sidence Hall was vandalized. The.
er reported, that "his vehicle win-
ow was smashed out."
,A stereo and other items were van-
lzed, DPS reported.
eaby dropped
outside Frieze
Building
An infant was dropped outside the
Frieze Building and was rushed to the
Medical Center for head injuries.
The female caller and her baby were
walking along the south side of the
*uilding when she dropped the baby,
according to DPS reports.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Anupama Reddv
By Anupama Reddy
Daily Staff Reporter
The right to die may be an issue local
voters will see on the ballot soon if two
Ann Arbor doctors have their way.
Drs. Edward Pierce and Ronald
Bishop outlined their plan to make physi-
cian-assisted suicide legal in Michigan at
Casa Dominick's on Monroe Street yes-
terday evening. Both are University
Medical School graduates.
"We are trying to assemble a group
together to get a petition drive going and
have (physician-assisted suicide) on the
ballot by 1998," said Bishop, a retired
University Medical School professor.
Bishop and Pierce founded the group
Merian's Friends, named in tribute of
the 19th patient to die with the assis-
tance of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a
Michigan pathologist who has helped
more than 35 people end their lives.
The two doctors said it was the expe-
rience of their mutual friend Merian
Frederick, who had Lou Gehrig's dis-
ease, and not Kevorkian's cases that sol-
dified their views about physician-
assisted suicide.
Pierce, a former Ann Arbor mayor and
state senator, outlined the requirements
to their proposal. He said in order to die
with physician assistance, a terminally ill
patient must have two doctors validate a
life expectancy of six months, a psychia-
trist confirm mental competance and
wait a minimum of seven days.
"We should be able to say yes or no
on when we want to end our lives. We
should do it without being messy,"
Pierce said.
"One of my patients had a husband
who had severe urinary tract infection.
He got frustrated and went to the garage
and shot himself in the head," Pierce
said. "All she had ldft to do was clean
up his brains."
Bishop said he got involved when he
heard about the case of the first patient
Kevorkian assisted. He said he was
impressed by the dignity surrounding
her death.
"Here's a woman in the early stages of
Alzheimer's, who was competent,"
Bishop said. "She talked about it with her
family, and so she came to Dr. Kevorkian.
"She could have gone to a tall build-
ing and jumped off or bought a handgun
and done it that way, but this was more
humane," Bishop said.
Both Pierce and Bishop said they
want to campaign against the negative
stigma attached to physician-assisted
suicide by bringing it to the people and
passing it into law.
An elderly couple in the audience said
they agreed and hopes it happens soon.
"We ourselves will probably be need-
ing the darn thing in 15 years or so,"
said Ann Arbor resident Vito Abate.
"It's not an abstract matter"
Abate is 87 years old, and his wife,
Esther, is 77 years old.
I
MARK FRIEDMAN/Dijy
Ronald Bishop, co-founder of Merian's Friends, outlines his plan for the legalization
of physician-aided suicide in Michigan. The talk was sponsored by the Libertarianr
party at Dominicks last night.
Faculty se
flor seme:sterI
0 SACUA looking to
strengthen relations
with community
By Katie Wang
Daily Staff Reporter
Faculty members outlined their goals
and discussed new initiatives for the
school year at a luncheon in the
Michigan Union yesterday.
Thomas Dunn, chair of the Senate
Advisory Committee on University
Affairs, said strengthening relations
between faculty and members of the
University community is one of
SACUA's main goals for the year.
"(We're) looking to strengthen the
way in which faculty can give advice to
executive officers and deans," Dunn
said. "We're also seeking to strengthen
ties between the executive committee
and the Senate Assembly."
Dunn also said the interim presiden-
cy of Homer Neal would mean a lot of
issues would be re-opened for discus-
sion.
"I think faculty in this interim period
will be listened to far more by the inter-
im president than in the past," he said.
Dunn stressed strong listening skills
and a rational mind as two important
attributes the next president should
have.
"We're looking for a president who
listens, absorbs what faculty and stu-
dents are thinking, and can formulate it
into a plan," Dunn said.
Some of the new initiatives proposed
by faculty committees include a forum
on financial aid. sponsored by the bud
get study committee.
Elizabeth Duel. chair of the budget
study committee, said she recognized
the importance of financial aid after
meetin-z with a group of students last
year.
"Most (students) brought horror sto
ries about trying to bridge financial aid
and costs of tuition," Duell said. "W
thought maybe what we should dh is
have a forum where students can con-
sider what their costs and benefits are.
"We've increased costs, but have thy
benefits increased proportionally?" she
asked.
Fiona Rose, Michigan Student
Assembly president, applauded the
committee's efforts.
"This is a great way for students to
voice their financial concerns to people
at the top:' Rose said. "I think this lun'
cheon is the beginning of a fruitful and
productive work year between students
and SACUA."
The student relations committee; an
advisory committee to Vice Presidert
for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford,
also drew up a list of concerns to focus
on this fall ,including the quality of stu'
dent lifb, the possibility of holding f-
ternity and sorority rush only in the sec-
ond semester, and the relationship
between MSA and the student body.
JENNIFER BRADLEY-SWIFT/Daily
Lights, camera, cars
Glenda Powell (left), Jessica Roberts and Steve Arthur act as graduates yesterday in the Law Quad for a General
Motor's advertising campaign encouraging students to buy GM cars.
oseCutor aCkoedges police
mis aen targeted house raid
BIG BAY, Mich. (AP) - Clayton
Root says he was terrified when a
group of armed men, some wearing ski
masks and hoods, barged into his
mobile home. He fought them and
ended up with a broken hand and cuts.
The men were police officers, con-
ducting what a prosecutor later
acknowledged was a botched drug raid.
"I was fighting for my life," Root
said Wednesday. "I thought it was teen-
agers who had come to kill us."
The officers were with the Michigan
State Police, Marquette Police
Department and UPSET, an Upper
Peninsula anti-drug squad.
They had obtained a search warrant,
said Peter Plummer, chief assistant
prosecutor for Marquette County. It list-
ed no street address but described the
property to be raided. The description
was based on incorrect information
from a source Plummer declined to
identify.
The Root dwelling at Big Bay was
similar to the one that was supposed to
be raided, Plummer told The Mining
Journal of Marquette. He said police
halted the search "after they realized
they went to the wrong place."
Plummer described the mistake as
"unfortunate." He declined to discuss
what happened in detail.
Root, 61, who draws a disability
pension from a back injury, said the
attack happened shortly after midnight
Tuesday - about 90 minutes after he
retired for the night. Also in the mobile
home were his wife, Marie, and her
sister, Olive Farrell, who lives in
Canada.
They were awakened by barking
dogs, then heavy pounding at the door.
"We didn't know what it was," Root
"1They kept a 61-year-old man
handcuffed, sitting in his underwear,
bleeding into his eyes for a half-hour
after they knew they were in the
wrong place."
- Mark Stevens
for alleged victim Clayton Root
Attorney
said. "The door burst open and I saw
the outline of a gun."
Plummer says the police identified
themselves before entering, and that the
raid was led by a uniformed officer.
Root says he saw no uniformed officer
at the head of the group and insists the
police did not identify themselves.
He said he grabbed one officer's gun
and was pushed down the hallway by
several men, one of whom cursed him
and yelled, "I'll kill you"
Root said he stopped struggling and
returned the gun after lie was pushed
into a bedroom and saw that some of
the men were wearing police uniforms.
He said he was shoved against a win-
dow, which broke, and that police beat
him with a flashlight while ordering his
wife to lie face down on the bathroom
floor.
"I'm still shaking," said Marie Root,
a housekeeper at the Huron Mountain
Club. "We didn't know who these peo-
ple were. They never touched me, (but)
they told me not to move."
Clayton Root was treated at
Marquette General Hospital for his
injuries.
He retained attorney Mark Stevens of
Marquette, who said he was preparing a
lawsuit against the three agencies.
"I am disgusted by what's happened
here," Stevens said. "They terrorized
these people. They kept a 61-year-old
man handcuffed, sitting in his under-
wear, bleeding into his eyes for a half-
hour after they knew they were in the
wrong place."
Marquette Police Chief Sal Sarvello
said two of his officers were present at
the raid but declined further comment.
Lt. Joseph VanOosterhout, comman-
der of the state police post in Negaunee,
referred a caller to Plummer.
DRUG
Continued from Page 1
have been slipped the drug, it was con-
firmed that three were men, The Daily
Collegian reported. It is not known
whether any of these 10 were sexually
assaulted.
Rambeau said Penn State officials
first saw the drug last year after spring
break and suspect that it may have trav-
eled to Pennsylvania from Florida.
"We're surprised that it has come
here to our quiet town," Rambeau said.
"I'm sure that a much more urban cam-
pus like the University of Michigan
would have seen it by now."
DPS spokesperson Elizabeth Hall
said there have been no reports of
Rohypnol use at the University.
"We've been fortunate here at U-M
and have no reported cases of the drug's
use," Hall said. "However, we do feel it is
important that people know it'sout there"
Wright said that SAPAC has incor-
porated information about Rohypnul
into its education curriculum.
"I don't want to say that it's not here,
but it's just that we haven't seen any (
it with our sexual assault survivors'
Wright said. "If it's here, we typical;.
would be the first to know about it"
Engineering junior Don Gualdoqi
said lie first heard about Rohypnol laat
winter in media reports.
"Because I'm a male, I wasn't tqo
concerned about it." Gualdoni said. 'I
think it is extremely important that tite
University gets the information' ot
about this. It could be a huge detriineut
to the campus if it shows up.
DPS Capt. James Smiley said in-it
statement that students can avoid the
drug by making sure.they open thr
own drinks.
"The most important thing you ca
do to protect yourself is to maintai
control over what you're drinking,"
Smiley said. "Never allow someone to
hand you an open beverage."
1 ~ - ..* TMT
IALLY AL
V_ What's happening in Ann Arbor today
* Best Prices
FRIDAY
J "Abrupt right step in the San
e Andreas Faults and ongoing nor-
mal faulting in the 1906 epicen-
tral region," Mary Lou Zoback,
2408, 4 p.m.
J "Meeting the Candidates fo the
Socialist Equality Party," Jerry
White, candidate for president;
Jim Hartnett, candidate for
Congress, sponsored by Socialist
1r,, o e a mrty ftrioh n inicnn
Kiwanis Building, 200 South First
St., 9 a.m.-12 noon
SUNDAY
GJ "Gargoyle Magazine Mass Meeting,"
* Largest Men's & Women S
Selection on Campus
i
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