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.
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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
