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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1992)
a lumr i; itla PenL oac hcam( w o/ e gulii 1 each 0: on since, en rumo, ded toi A - a n S pi before. L; wer, hei ‘rviewed New c ks for I d coacfe Page 12 Asian families set a good example for improving education. - Battalion Editorial Board Page 4 A&M student plans national bike tour to raise handicap awareness. Page 3 A&M baseball player Hickey looks to season, Olympic tryouts The Battalion Vol. 91 No. 77 College Station, Texas ‘Serving Texas A&M since 1893” 12 Pages Thursday, January 23, 1992 Penders seven-yt tract cons i lucrative 1 e ge si; ds. But been e iled in cj 'ersy nding player, De Pambridgj Cambridge, ior forwai ighting ■X A to regj, eligibilit :h was ii 'd when itted accep mior collei 5, the ordei rift betwee adminishi i st that tho> en healed, ■st team in eally such a ,me three :? Get have the ew York Is was one I's ever, ink that , be that ne. 300 yards passes and 17. Explosion survivor speaks out for patients' rights By Becky Blum The Battalion The ability of medical science to pre serve life has far outdistanced its ability to preserve bodily functions, a patients' rights advocate said Wednesday night in Rudder Tower. Dax Cowart, a licensed attorney, re ceived painful treatments against his will after surviving a propane gas explosion in 1973. He spoke to a group of doctors and medical students at a public lecture entitled "Pain, Suffering, and Self-Determination." Blinded and left handicapped by his in juries, Cowart said although many strides have been made in the medical field, people are still "victims of success" because physi cians are keeping patients alive in a "dying condition." Mentally competent adults should be free to refuse treatment, Cowart said. "People should have the same rights in side the hospital as they do outside of hos pital walls," he said. During the first 14 months after his acci dent, Cowart was forcibly treated in several hospitals. He asked doctors not to treat him because of the pain and because he did not feel that a life without sight or the use of his hands would be worth living. Cowart said many people assume that since a doctor has medical expertise, he or she possesses moral expertise as well. "Simply because doctors are medical experts does not mean they are able to make value judgments in the treatment of their patients," Cowart said. Dr. William Winslade, a lawyer and medical ethicist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, also ad dressed the audience. Doctors are indoctri nated to preserve life at all costs, he said. "Physicians want to treat patients not only to save lives, but also because of a be lief in vitalism —life is valuable in itself," Winslade said. Since Cowart's 1973 hospitalization, many of the laws governing patients' rights have improved, Winslade said. Despite doctors' argument that they will be held ac countable for a patient's death, no lawsuit has ever been filed against a physician who See Patients’/Page 9 Germans intercept shipment Rule prohibits transportation of 'sensitive' items to Libya , & i us i ness on m. 101 BONN, Germany (AP) — A plane bound for Libya carrying American-made laser equipment for building rockets was seized last month at Frankfurt airport moments before takeoff, German officials said Wednesday. Chief government spokesman Dieter Vogel said the cargo con tained "dual use parts which could be used for nuclear technol ogy." Dual use refers to technolo gy that has been designed for civilian use but can also be used in arms production. Another German official said U.S. officials had asked Germany to intervene shortly before the plane left Frankfurt for Tripoli Dec. 10. The official, speaking on con dition of anonymity, said the car go contained "lots of parts," most ly laser equipment used in build ing rockets. He said the cargo was addressed to a Libyan organiza tion known to be working on the country's rocket program. In Washington, State Depart ment press officer Joseph Snyder said the administration was aware of the transaction and has been in touch with the German govern ment. Other officials said the ad ministration was not surprised by the German disclosure. There was no elaboration. The German government source said a U.S. company, in ap parent violation of export law, sent the goods to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where a Dutch firm served as an intermediary. The goods were then flown to Frank furt for the last leg of the journey, the source said. The cargo seizure came to light during the German government's regular news briefing Wednesday. Vogel was briefing reporters on a new regulation in German export law that the Cabinet had approved earlier in the day. The new rule prohibits "sensi tive" items from being transport ed through Germany to Libya "when the government has reason to believe these items are to be used for arms purposes," Vogel said. Shuttle blasts 1 'slimy' cargo | into space Ogden leads testimonials at Aggies for Life rally By Reagon Clamon The Battalion Retailing uernship’ ontain" [S CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Discovery blasted off Wednes day on the year's first space shut tle mission, carrying seven astro nauts and a slimy bunch of bugs, eggs and mold into orbit for a week of gravity-free scrutiny. "It was a beautiful launch and a great way to start 1992," NASA Administrator Richard Truly said, beaming. The astronauts quickly pow ered up Spacelab, a pressurized module in the cargo bay. They floated one by one through a long tunnel from the cabin into the lab oratory, and gently stored the box es of organisms into incubators and racks. Among the more prolific crea tures aboard are roundworms, 72 million of them to be exact. Each worm can produce 280 offspring in three days. Also along are fruit flies, stick insects, frog eggs and sperm, slime mold, fetal mouse bones, hamster kidney cells, human blood cells, yeast, wheat and oat seedlings, lentil roots, thale cress and bacte ria. "It's an exciting beginning to a great adventure ... a journey into the world of tomorrow," program scientist Ronald White said after watching Discovery vanish in a hazy sky. Eight speakers, including state Rep. Steve Ogden, discussed stop ping abortion in America at the annual Aggies for Life rally in the Memorial Student Center on Wednesday — the nineteenth an niversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. The speakers addressed a small crowd in the MSG fla- groom. The rally, sponsored by Aggies for Life and several oth er groups on campus, consist ed of several tes timonials dis couraging and promoting alter- Ogden natives to abortion. Ogden told the crowd he be lieves abortion is a social ill that — alongside child abuse and racism — can be attributed to the lowering of the value of human life. "One of the reasons I became a Republican is because the Repub lican Party and Republican lead ers were willing to stand up for the principles that the unborn hu man being has a right to exist," said Ogden. Ogden said his answer to the devaluing of life was to reinstate the belief that all life is made in God's image. "Texans — whether they agree or disagree with the issue — have always admired those with the courage to stand up and draw a line in the sand for what they be lieve in," Ogden said. State Senator Jim Turner, who could not attend due to a previous engagement, sent a letter support ing the Aggies for Life movement and emphasized his stand against the legality of abortion in Ameri ca. Akua Furlow, Texas coordina tor of Black Americans for Life, likened the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion to the 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared African-Americans were property. See Lecturers/Page 9 COMA commemorates MLK day By Tanya Sasser The Battalion About 150 people turned out to honor Dr. Mar tin Luther King, Jr. in a celebration sponsored by the Committee on Multicultural Awareness (COMA) in the Commons lobby Wednesday after noon. Voices of Praise, a 30-person gospel choir, be gan the program on a lively note with a song per formance. Steven Ruth, student body president, then spoke about Dr. King and his plea for nonviolent social change. Ruth asked that blacks try to live Dr. King's dream every day by presenting themselves in a positive way and by always showing people their best. He also expressed his delight at the large num ber of participants. "I'm sure Dr. King would have tears of joy just to look out into this crowd and see such a gleeful and joyous gathering," Ruth said. The dance ensemble Fade to Black performed a jazz dance number to close the program. Deborah Henderson, chairman of COMA, felt that the program ran smoothly. "I think it went very well," she said. "We had a lot of new faces this year. They were very receptive to what he [Ruth] had to say." The Association of Former Students and by Stu dent Affair Housing provided refreshments at a re ception in the Krueger lobby following the pro gram. . COMA will be coordinating similar events for Black History Month in February and for Cinco de Mayo this May. HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion Kim Mitchell (left), Karen Clay and Angela Washington (right) listen to a speech by Student Body President Stephen Ruth.