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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
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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.