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THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 19B0
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United Press International
PARIS — Eleven handicapped people, paralyzed below the
wist, sat in wheelchairs around a table and discussed how they
Id find joy in life if only a loved one would caress their
loulders, their backs.
.1 In an adjoining conference hall, some 200 doctors, psycho-
1 | trini igists, sociologists and therapists from 14 countries convened
e yatt|« f irst international congress on “Handicap and Sex-
| S ’ ln theiijjy ”
ar upswiijMjg United Nations declared 1981 the Year of the Handicap-
111 ’ er!i jed to focus attention on the world’s 450 million disabled. As
—^opener, the Institute of Sexology, opened in Paris in 1977
, p patterned after the American Kinsey and Masters and
fiew [ohnson clinics, organized the conference.
|anon Servin, a blind therapist at State University of New
|k, told how the blind have sex education through touch or
. Jening to therapists. Other experts spoke of the problems of
| ‘ 1 ' fciching contraception to the deaf.
’ rou P’ ® c f M 0 st of the speakers focused on paraplegics, whose para-
id lower bodies are devoid of feeling, usually as a result of
iti| accidents. Doctors said victims never can experience
Few males can have intercourse or father children,
here are 22 to 25 new cases per million inhabitants in the
Id every year,” said Dr. H.J. Hachen, medical director of
ehabilitation center at the Swiss Spinal Injuries Center in
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iheir average age is 24 to 27. It was not until we organized
tilar sessions of sexual counseling in 1970 that we became
fly aware of the importance of psychological support to ad-
nent.
?For the male young adult, sex frequently is a means to
“Sex is a part of everybody's life. The
patient must understand there are
many ways to be sexual. ”— Medical
director of a Swiss rehabilitation
center.
boost his ego or to get rid of tension and anxiety. These
youngsters, having become paraplegic, are likely to become
terribly frustrated since they firmly believe they are definitely
deprived forever of virility and the word sex’ has to be erased
from their vocabulary.
“Sex is a part of everybody’s life. The patient must under
stand there are many ways to be sexual. We speak to him not so
much about lost functions but about the happiness that may be
gained through diversified sexual activities such as kissing,
caressing, petting.”
One of several explicit therapeutic films shown at the confer
ence depicted a young wife and her paraplegic husband gently
soaping each other in the bathtub. The film obviously moved
the paraplegic youths who avidly watched from their wheel
chairs.
Dr. Nel Van Son-Schooners of Utrecht University in Hol
land told the meeting her rehabilitation program for paraple
gics includes urging them to discover the erotic portions of
their upper bodies so their mates can express affection in
different ways.
“It was necessary for our research paraplegics to have pri
vate rooms to do their homework,” she said. “The research
center is in an old monastery so in the little rooms the patients
did their erotic exercises. We now plan a program for their
spouses.”
Since female paraplegics can bear children, their cases for
years were ignored. Dr. Van Son-Schoones said that until
recently, the fact that women paraplegics could not have nor
mal sexual feelings was not thought important by male doctors.
Some of the cases have happy endings.
Hachen’s latest patient is an 18-year-old garage mechanic
who missed a curve at night in his sportscar and crashed into a
ravine. The man lay unnoticed for 10 hours with a broken spine
until a helicopter rescued him.
Surgeons patched him up and “re-educated” his bladder and
bowels to empty at certain times since normal urination and
evacuation are not possible in a paralyzed body.
“Then he discovered he could never have sexual inter
course. When he went home, his girlfriend was reticent to be
together with him, saying if he did not feel anything she would
not, either. We discussed it with her and later things went very
well.
“They wanted to know if he could have a baby. Through
spinal injections we were able to remove sperm — possible
only for a few months after paralyzation — which can be
artifically inseminated into the woman.
“They are getting married next week.”
Police still seeking
‘bathroom bandit’
United Press International
BATON ROUGE, LA — Capitol
police searched Thursday for a man
quickly becoming known as the
“bathroom bandit” who entered
women’s rest rooms and peeked into
the stalls at them.
Authorities said the man startled
several women Thursday morning in
three downtown state office build
ings, including the Department of
Natural Resources Building, the
Education Building and the Welfare
Building.
One victim, who declined to give
her name, said she was embarrassed
by the man.
“I could see the feet in the next
stall,” she said. “I went on to use the
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B United Press International
i up wasaiiQALLAS — J err y Sanders’ travel-
rismaticf® ) q com P an * on is 30 feet tall and
roving of tklp s 5 tons. He’d like to find it a
in itself. P e -
'et a chaetf:'B°i' on Sanders’ modern steel
’ displays dijwture, is a huge spiraling fan of
n’t fret N spike-like lengths of steel that
anyway. 11* toward the sky in an arc. The
fe piece, base and all, can be
;en down into six pieces and easi-
Rioved, or at least moved with
^^jPjparative ease for something that
DO * _
inders built Motion II for
and in-kind services and
flies from private industries in-
sted in the arts. By midsummer
lopes to have it sold. Experts
le placed the value at between
1000 and $100,000.
[all goes well on the sale, Sanders
| on Labor Day next September
yould present the proceeds to
pcular Dystrophy during the
ity’s annual telethon. That con-
ition is the reason he started the
Jre enterprise that took six
Bths just to finance and complete.
I simply wanted to create a large
loor sculpture,” he said, “and at
same time see someone benefit
846-6111
from its creation in a material sense
as well as an aesthetic one.”
Motion II was displayed in a park
in Fort Worth and now is in front of
Market Hall in Dallas. Sanders had
wanted to take it on an eight-city tour
but too many problems popped up.
“I take it apart myself, move it and
re-assemble it,” said Sanders, 31.
“What I need is a place to put it. I’m
optimistic we can move it down to
Houston during the holidays, but
I’m not sure we’ll get everything set
tled.
“You have to get permission from
everyone if you want to display it in a
public park,” he said. “There are all
kinds of offices you have to go
through.
“When we displayed it in Fort
Worth we needed $100,000 property
damage insurance, then we needed
$300,000 in liability insurance. It’s
endless.”
He said he has tried to get answers
from several cities but frequently
suffers from unretumed phone calls
and bureaucracies that can take
weeks to get through. From his ori
ginal hope of touring eight cities, he
now has cut it back to “as many as
possible.”
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bathroom like I had intended to do
when I got there. And then the head
was peeping under the stall.
“It startled me and I screamed and
said ‘Who’s in there?’ I think I must
have startled the person.... I just ran
out afterward.”
Capitol Police Capt. W.J. Wisner
said officers received reports from
several women who saw the man.
Each time police went to check out
one of the complaints, Wisner said,
the man apparently was one step
ahead of them.
Wisner said the suspect was pick
ed up once for questioning — but
“he gave us a logical explanation”
that he merely took a wrong turn into
the ladies’ room and was released.
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