Task force suggestions offered
By Michelle Starr
Staffuriter
As examination of medical care in
the state’s correctional facilities con
tinues, questions persisted for task
force members Friday.
Elkhorn Sen. Dwite Pedersen,
who has worked with troubled boys for
more than 35 years, offered sugges
tions to task force members on what he
thought they should be looking for.
The five-member, governor
appointed task force that was
announced Dec. 20,1999, came into
existence because Dr. Fraisal Ahmed,
an employee of the Department of
Correctional Services, spoke'out
against the level of medical care given
to inmates.
Ahmed voiced his concerns to the
state ombudsman, Marshal Lux,
which led to a 14-month investigation
into the matter by the ombudsman’s
office, said James Davis, assistant
state ombudsman.
An extensive report was released
by the ombudsman’s office Nov. 23,
1999. Included in the report was testi
mony from correctional facility staff
and inmates indicating a lack of care.
Pedersen, also a certified sub
stance abuse counselor, has visited
routinely die correctional facilities and
inmates residing there since he
became a state senator in 1993, he
said.
“Obviously there is a problem ”
Pedersen said.
From his experiences with the
inmates and the concerns they have
expressed to him, some inmates’ med
ical needs have been neglected, he
said.
For example, in submitted testimo
ny to the task force on Feb. 11,2000,
Pedersen said he had heard concerns
regarding inmates’ not receiving cold
medicine or local anesthetic for
surgery, and medical staff’s refusal to
treat patients because they would be
released soon.
On Wednesday a woman at the
work-release center e-mailed Pedersen
and said she had blood in her urine but
was not allowed to see her own physi
cian when she had the right to do so,
Pedersen said.
Pedersen said he was not a doctor
and could not make conclusions him
self, but asked die task force - in which
four of five members have medical
expertise - to take a good look at the
care, without intervention from the
corrections system.
George Green, legal counsel for
Correctional Services, agreed with
Pedersen that the task force should
take a closer look.
“It would be refreshing to get an
objective review of these allegations,”
Green said.
But Pedersen wanted the task force
to look into inmates’ claims.
He cited specifically the medical
care for prisoners with diabetes, com
plaints of maltreatment from prison
ers, the method of accreditation for
correctional facilities the state uses,
how the department categorizes med
ical response time and the use of
excessive restraint for mentally ill
patients.
He also said the task force should
look into the figures provided by the
department regarding treatment
“Corrections is very good at giv
ing bad information,” Pedersen said.
He also questioned how the
department could have a surplus of
$4,000 to $7,000 in its budget, as was
stated at the Feb. 11 task force meet
ing, when it says it needs more money.
Pedersen defended the Nebraska
Correctional Treatment Center and
said it was the best facility he has seen
in the world.
But programs, like treatment,
which he said are preventative, are not
used as much as they should be.
“We’re not spending money on
facilities like this, we’re spending
money on bricks and mortar,”
Pedersen said.
Pedersen said the Department of
Correctional Services had been on the
defensive since the report’s release.
“They’re like a cat on a tin roof,” he
said.
The department did not allow Jack
Faulkner, assistant director of
Correctional Services, the chance to
respond to Pedersen’s suggestions.
The comments are only sugges
tions for the task force to examine,
Pedersen said. They are not allegations
of wrongdoing, but they do need to be
examined without the arrogance dis
played by members of the department
Since the task force was created,
Department of Correctional Services
Director Harold Clarke has main
tained that the facilities are more than
adequate and suggested on Feb. 11 that
the task force should inspect the facili
ties unannounced.
Group examines research morality
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
-■'jl! I M ,<■»>..-( :•-* i- r. . • - •
Abortion is not the real concern in
the debate over whether fetal tissue
should be used for research, a group of
experts, professors and students said
Friday at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln.
A group called Theology for Lunch
met in the Nebraska Union to discuss
the morality and legality of using brain
tissue from fetuses, some of them abort
ed, for research.
It became known in November that
the University of Nebraska Medical
Center had been using aborted fetal tis
sue cells to do research on Alzheimer’s
disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The center had been doing so for the
last four years. ,
me rcsearcn encourages aooruon,
and a public institution should not pro
mote and fund such an act, anti-abor
tionists said.
But researchers and experts in the
field say the research is warranted
because of the gains that could come
from it
Gregg Wright, a pediatrician and
administrator at the Center on Children,
Families and the Law, said the research
is not about abortion
“This question is not tightly con
nected to whether abortion is moral or
immoral,” Wright said. “But it is being
used as a way to argue the abortion
question. That’s too bad.”
Using fetal tissue for research will
not increase the number of abortions,
Wright said.
Robert Bartee, executive assistant to
the chancellor at UNMC, agrees.
“It would be illegal for a doctor to sit
down with a pregnant woman and tell
her the tissue could be used for
research,” Bartee said. “You cannot kay
where you want the tissue to go for
research. That is totally prohibited in
this country.”
Most women who come in for a
pregnancy test already have their minds
made up about what they’re going to do
if the results show up positive, said
Mary Lutz, a doctor at the University
Health Center.
Knowing that fetal tissue is used for
research does not sway most women,
Lutz said.
U I’m seeing the cream of the crop here,
too. Not the high school dropouts who get
pregnant."
“I’m seeing the cream of the crop
here, too,” she said. “Not the high
school dropouts who get pregnant.”
However, selling and buying fetal
tissue should be illegal, Wright said.
There should be a law disallowing
the use of fetal tissue if it were created
specifically for testing purposes, he
said.
There is a cause-and-effect relation
ship that most people have failed to
notice, said Richard Boohar, professor
of biological sciences.
Sometimes it is acceptable for a
good thing to come out of something
bad, he said.
for example, Boohar said people
who die in car accidents donate organs,
and drunken drivers cause some of
those accidents. In that case, a person
died because of something bad - drunk
en driving.
But something good also came out
of it - a person received a necessary
transplant.
“If you truly believe cause and
effect is bad, you better not take the
transplant,” Boohar said. “You’d be sup
porting drunk driving.”
The same is true with fetal tissue
research, he said. The abortion is most
likely going to happen either way, he
said, and rather than throwing the tissue
away, it should be used for research.
UNMC is using fetal brain cell tis
sue that is 10-19 weeks old, Bartee said.
It is still growing at this stage, and
researchers are trying to understand
what happens to the DNA, he said.
The goal is to find drugs or other
ways to help adults suffering from
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s dis
ease, multiple sclerosis or AIDS-related
dementia, he said.
No cells from partial-birth abor
tions are ever used because they are too
late in the developmental process to be
useful, Bartee said.'
People need to understand that
research is essential to scientific study,
Mary Lutz
doctor, University Health Center
Bartee said.
“We know science is going to move
whether we want it to or not,” he said.
“As people of faith, we have to find a
way to talk about this so it makes sense,
instead of throwing bombs at each
other.”
Conducting this research is another
way to learn more about the world,
Wright said.
“As long as it’s done property, (using
fetal tissue cells for research) is not
morally wrong and should be allowed,”
Wright said. “But we should plan for a
day when there aren’t any abortions to
RHA, ASUN connection role
for second vice president
ASUN from page 1 _
broadcasting major who is running
with the A-team party.
Mike Butterfield, a junior civil
engineering major who is running
with the Empower party, thinks RHA
and ASUN should work together to
get more accomplished
“Sometimes there is a real big
flow of information about what’s
going on in ASUN, and then there is a
period of time when we (RHA) don’t
hear anything for awhile,” Butterfield
said.
“I want to let RHA know every
single week what is going on in
ASUN.”
Amy Ellis, a fourth-year junior
human resource and family science
major who is running with the Impact
party, said she wants to bridge the gap
between RHA and ASUN.
“I want to make more people
aware of ASUN,” Ellis said. “We can
do this by working together with RHA
in areas such as programming.”
Betsey Saunders, a junior political
science major who is running with the
Duff party, said she would work with
RHA and student life groups to help
improve the university.
“I plan on attending the meetings
of RHA and student life groups,” she
said.
Another primary issue for some
candidates is making senators more
available to students and student orga
nizations.
Saunders wants to make herself
available for students and organiza
tions that need help, she said.
Ellis wants senators to go into
introductory level classes to make
freshmen aware of ASUN, she said
Ellis also wants to reorganize the
senate office hours.
“I want to keep in contact with all
the student organizations through e
mail, so we are more visible if they
need something,” she said
Another issue candidates are con
cerned with deals with the master plan
for the university.
Butterfield wants to make stu
dents aware of what’s going on with
the master plan.
“I want to let students know what’s
coming up because there is still an
opportunity to voice their opinions
and make changes if necessary,”
Butterfield said.
Other goals for the candidates
included improving the campus com
munity and improving the academic
quality of the university.
Webber said he wants to have
organizations come together to plan
different programming.
Webber said some events could be
“more effective” if they were planned
by several organizations.
Saunders opposes the plans to
build a new honors residence halls,
she said.
“I think we need more regular
dorms before we think about building
a new honors dorm,” Saunders said.
Seniors:
Still Need a Course
to Graduate?
Contact UNI'S College
Independent Study Program
472-2175
dcsregl@unl.edu
Keep Graduation Alive
a Nebraska
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