The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 22, 1985, Page Page 4, Image 4
Friday, November 22, 1985 Page 4 Daily Nebraskan .h Jl&wBdl JilO Editorial - . I t -I aires pave wa,y ffdDF mew advaiiLces ince doctors began implanting the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, four transplant patients have had strokes and the fifth died two weeks after the operation. The artificial hearts have prolonged life in most cases, but they have not maintained quality of life. For example, on Monday Bill Schroeder will have survived one year with an artificial heart. Schroeder is surviving, but he is not enjoying a quality life. He is recovering from his third stroke, his speech and memory are failing and he is partly paralyzed. Would Schroeder arid his family have forged ahead with the implant if they had known what his life would be like? Perhaps. The problem with artificial heart implants is that patients and doctors themselves don't know what to expect. But no one will know what to expect unless doctors continue to experiment and work out the complications. Dr. Walter Friedlander, professor of medical humanities and neurology at the NU Medical Center, said, the heart might not be advantageous to Schroeder, but artificial hearts might benefit people in the future. Tests must be conducted on humans and animals if the procedure is to be perfected. fy edlander said he thinks the tests are ethical if patients fully understand that they are experimental "guinea pigs" and they realize doctors don't know all the answers yet. Some argue that artificial heart implants should be banned. The risks are too high, and people should simply accept death. To some extent, arguments against implants are valid. The world would be overpopulated (more than it is now) if doctors prolonged all lives. As Colorado Gov. Richard Lamb said, old people have a duty to die. Lamb was too harsh, but he has a point if the quality of life cannot be restored, doctors sometimes should not sustain that life. Implant experiments should continue not to prolong human life in general, but to sustain life until human donor hearts can be found. Most importantly, implant patients must be told of the consequences and realize that they will be helping future generations more than themselves. The Daily Nebraskan 34 Nebraska Union 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448 EDITOR NEWS EDITOR CAMPUS EDITOR ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR WIRE EDITOR COPY DESK CHIEFS SPORTS EDITOR ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR WEATHER EDITOR PHOTO CHIEF ASSISTANT PHOTO CHIEF NIGHT NEWS EDITOR ASSOCIATE NIGHT NEWS EDITORS . 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For information, contact Joe Thomsen. Subscription price is $35 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1 400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1SS5 DAILY NEBRASKAN Blistering ignorance? bachev insulted Shultz, but he had shown himself ignorant of the U.S. political system. With that, everyone slammed their briefing books and re turned to Washington, an appropriate scowl on their respective faces. Who can blame them? Gorbachev had quoted brace yourself Eisenhower. Gorbachev not far off mark Immediately after Secretary of State keenly disappointed. Gorbachev did Perle is on record as saying that with George Shultz's sit-down in Moscow not even say anything about "Negroes the possible exception of the Rush- with Soviet leader Mikhail Gor- in the South" to counter references to Bagot treaty of 1817 limiting Canadian bachev, word circulated that he had Soviet slave labor. In fact, it's hard to and U.S. armaments on the Great Lakes, given Shultz a proper dressing-down, see exactly what he did say that was so he can't think of another that's worth It was said that not only had Gor- awiui and represented so protound a tne paper it s written on. rerie is not misreading of U.S. politics. Nevertheless, the effect on the ad ministration was both swift and inex plicable. The senior official described Shultz as "disappointed but not sur prised." But the president reacted as any real American would. Gorbachev's remarks had Reagan's "adrenalin going," the official said, and he warned that should Gorbachev talk that way to the president himself, Reagan would be "vigorous" right back. And then the senior official compared the middle aged Gorbachev to the young Stalin. Of course, words alone simply may Soviets that it rejects the very notion not communicate the tone of the meet- that an arms-control agreement with ing, and so it is possible that you them is anything more than a sucker's simply had to be m the room with Gor- game. The other, while more reasona Yes, Dwight David Eisenhower. Later, bachev to understand why he so steam- ble, seems in perpetual disarray, both in one of those government briefings in ed the Americans he addressed. The clumsy and amateurish in its dealings which the identity of the official is words themselves are, by Soviet stand- with the Soviets and, as with National never revealed, it was disclosed what ards, not only fairly mild but, worse Security Adviser Robert McFarlane's Gorbachev had said that sent everyone than that, fairly accurate. That line interpretation of the ABM treaty, likely into a deep and, as these things go, about the "military-industrial complex" to reverse course on a dime, profound depression. He said that "ex- was coined for Eisenhower by a speech It is not nice to interrupt, and surely tremists" in the government and the writer, Malcolm C. Moos, and used by Gorbachev knew what he was doing "military-industrial complex" dominate the president in his 1961 farewell when he did so. On the other hand, the U.S. policy and were trying to stop address. The good general was not the real-life equivalent of sticks and stones efforts to improve U.S.-Soviet relations, first, nor the last, to warn that the (MIRVs can break your bones) are what That it appears is the sum and defense industry was a powerful force matters, not names like "extremist." substance of Gorbachev's anti-American in its own right capable of creating Given some standard Soviet exaggera tive, delivered, it should be added, in policy if only to sustain profits. tion, Gorbachev mirrored what U.S. pol a gruff manner and by way of interrup- As for "extremists" in the govern- icy looks like to him. Take a good look, tions. Still, those of us who were ment, once again Gorbachev is in the Ttmnvnntinnir aiithnt Hiffprpnt tn vmi. general vicinity of the target. It's hard 1985, Washington Post Writers Group to know what to call Richard Perle, the Cohen writes an editorial column for the 2 a .1 ' . i .A 1 imiuemiai assistant aeiense secretary. Washington Post. Richard Cohen only the No. 1 arms-control adviser to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, he represents an important school of thought within the Reagan administra tion. It is not necessary to defend Gorba chev's statement, manners or, for that matter, his probably slim understand ing of the United States, to neverthe less appreciate how he might have come by his views. The administration speaks with two voices when it comes to arms control. One can rightfully be called extremist so hostile to the expecting something out of the Nikita Khrushchev era a mugging of a desktop with a blunt shoe were Subtle perversion defines heroes I am not a faithful reader of the best worst lists that flow out of every self-described pollster armed with a pen, pencil or printout. I don't share the general reverence for the mystical number ten as in The Ten BestWorst dressed or coiffed, loved or respected among entertainers and athletes, world leaders and house pets. Ellen Goodman Nevertheless, here I sit poring over three such lists that I have garnered from past weeks a "greatest," a "most" and a "best" trying to wrest some meaning out of the ranks of superlatives. The "greatest" is a list of U.S. heroes chosen by 4,000 high school students in ito tinea, me teen-agers picked as their top three heroes Eddie Murphy, President Reagan and Bill Cosby. In that order. "Mom," by the way, was a write-in for seventh place. The "most" list came from the Nov ember issue of the Ladies Home Jour nal. The Journal survey of some 2,000 Americans ranked the Most Admired Women this way: (1) Katharine Hep burn (2) Barbara Walters (3) Geraldine Ferraro (4) Jane Fonda and (5) Nancy Reagan. Tying for sixth place were Mary Lou Retton and Jeane Kirkpatrick Finally there is the "best" list. This was a group chosen by purse rather than by poll. The first five books on the New York Times best-seller nonfiction list are by andor about the following people: Elvis Presley, Shirley MacLaine, Chuck Yeager, Lee Iacocca and Howard Cosell. Also-rans were Marilyn Monroe Joan Kennedy and John DeLorean under separate covers, of course. On the surface, the people who share billing among the most and best and greatest have less in common than vanilla and strawberry in the top ten ice-cream flavors. Consider the trinity of superheroes in the teen-age world. The president of the United States, a Beverly Hills cop and Heathcliffe Hux table. AH they have in common is an AFTRA card. Yet an entire cohort group regards the three as roughly equal in the heroism quotient. As for admiration, not only did the former U.N. ambassador come in neck and neck with a 17-year-old gym nast, but an actress, Katharine Hep burn, beat out a Supreme Court Jus tice, Sandra Day O'Connor, by a country mile. If there is any thread to follow through the upper end of the list, the public seemed to admire women who were outspoken on the air, on the cam paign stump and in films. It seemedjo. Please see GOODMAN on 5