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Vol. 93 No. 57 (10 pages)
1893 - A Century of Service to Texas A&M - 1993
Tuesday, November 16,1993
Court lets Mississippi keep abortion consent law
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A Mississippi
abortion law requiring unmarried girls to
get both parents' consent or a judge's per
mission before ending their pregnancies
survived a Supreme Court challenge
Monday.
The court rejected a constitutional at
tack on the law, called by opponents
"devastating” and "the most burdensome
of its kind."
Monday's action was not a ruling but
an unexplained refusal to review the law.
Nevertheless, both sides in the national
debate over abortion were quick to react.
"The justices have denied young
women their day in court," said Cather
ine Albisa of the Center for Reproductive
Law and Policy. She called the Mississip
pi law "an onerous restriction" that is
more burdensome than any other state's.
"Most young women can and do con
sult with their parents when they are fac
ing an unwanted pregnancy," Albisa
said. "But for those who legitimately fear
the outcome of involving one or both par
ents, this law is devastating."
Burke Balch of National Right to Life
Committee said Monday's action was
"not surprising."
"What is surprising is how successful
abortion advocates have been in tying up
these laws in court after the Supreme
Court strongly indicated . . . that two-par
ent consent laws with (judicial) bypass
would be constitutional," Balch said.
The Mississippi law was enacted in 1986
but had been tied up in court since a feder
al judge barred its enforcement that year.
The law requires doctors to obtain
written permission from both parents be
fore performing an abortion on a girl who
is unmarried, under 18 and not support
ing herself.
A judicial-bypass provision allows
such a girl to avoid telling either parent if
the girl gets a judge's permission. The law
requires that the court proceedings be
speedy and confidential.
The law also requires judges to grant
permission if a girl shows she is mature
enough to make the abortion decision on
her own or proves an abortion is in her
best interest.
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Brooks Booker, a junior biomedical science major, takes a slide
through a large puddle of mud at the Marine Obstacle Course Mon-
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day morning. Booker completed the mud slide of the obstacle
course as part of a venture dynamics class.
Clinton presses
for NAFTA votes
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Struggling for votes with time running out, Pres
ident Clinton leaned on Democrats opposing a trade agreement with
Mexico Monday and tried to hold Republican supporters. The White
House tried to pick up farm-state votes with a wheat deal.
Two days before the showdown, the outcome rested with 42 House
members who said they were still undecided. Both sides said they had
the votes to win.
Clinton argued there was nothing to lose by giving the agreement a
chance. "If all the nay sayers turn out to be (correct), the treaty gives us
a right to withdraw in six months," he said.
"Why don't we just wait and see whether we're right or they're
right?" Clinton said to small-business owners. "Ring the phones up,"
he implored, seeking to increase pressure on fence-sitting lawmakers.
The White House claimed to have picked up 15 votes over the week
end.
An Associated Press count found 206 lawmakers saying they would
vote against the agreement or were likely to do so. On the other side,
186 lawmakers said they would vote for it; 42 were undecided. Clinton
needs 218 votes to win.
Congressional sources said the administration struck a deal with
congressmen from Oklahoma and Texas to impose quotas on durum
wheat if Canada does not change its pricing policies within 60 days.
Rep. Larry Combest, R-Texas, cited that agreement in announcing his
support for Clinton Monday.
"They've done a deal with everybody but working people," charged
House Whip David Bonior, D-Micn., a leader of the anti-NAFTA forces.
But he added, "I think we're going to win."
On the Capitol's West Front, several hundred civil service union
members, mostly from New York state, chanted "Dump this NAFTA,"
and carried placards depicting a monkey perched on the shoulders of a
hardhat-wearing worker.
See NAFTA/Page 10
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Genetic cloning will
By Geneen Pipher
The Battalion
Earlier this month, researchers
at George Washington University
announced that they were able to
successfully split a human em
bryo sparking waves of contro
versy and debate within the sci
entific community over the
cloning of human tissue.
Dr. Jim Wild, head of Texas
A&M's genetics department, said
scientists have long been aware of
the possibility of splitting human
embryos.
"They've known for a long
time that it is possible to take an
egg and cut it in half in turn mak
ing two identical calves for exam
ple," Wild said. "The same thing
happens naturally when you pro
duce identical human twins.
"The reason this got so much
publicity was that they did it with
human embryos instead of a dog
or a cat or some other animal."
The experiment essentially
brought to light the possibility of
making test tube twins although
the embryos that were split were
cause ethical dilemmas, professor says
genetically unbalanced and
would not have survived longer
than a few days. Wild said.
"If the two eggs would have
been normal, which they were
not, it would have been possible
to transplant them into a female
by normal techniques and expect
to produce identical twins from
one egg," he said. "I don't be
lieve, however, that there are any
plans to make identical twins or
freezing one for an organ store
house as has been suggested."
Don Self, professor of philoso
phy and head of the Department
of Humanities in the College of
Medicine, said some scientists
may use this new technology to
create babies to order.
"The concept of babies to order
is probably going to be the case
down the line a little bit as the
technology develops and as gene
therapy improves," Self said.
"We will probably get to the
point where we're able to insert
certain genes into a developing
embryo to give it certain charac
teristics, essentially babies to or
der."
Self said many new ethical
dilemmas will come along with
such concepts.
"A lot of people consider this
to be dangerous and ethically
problematic, thinking that it is the
search for a super race," he said.
"I'm not all that convinced that it
is necessarily bad because all
you're doing is replacing the ran
domness of nature with some
thought and intention, we do that
all the time in lots of different
things."
The world is ready for new
technology and can handle the
problems that could arise, he said.
"The world is very capable of
dealing with the ethical ramifica
tions that have resulted from sci
ence and technology through the
years," he said. "We have adapt
ed to the splitting of the atom and
development of nuclear power,
which is sometimes used in war
and is sometimes used to light up
dark cities.
"1 think the human spirit has
the same capabilities of dealing
with these kinds of evolutionary
changes in much the same way as
we have throughout recorded
history."
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Tuberculosis may become
incurable, health group says
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Tuberculosis, the "world's most neglected
epidemic," could be killing 4 million people a year within a decade
unless Western countries come up with $100 million to fight it, the
World Health Organization said Monday.
Drug-resistant strains are increasing so rapidly that without fast
action, a once easily cured disease is on the verge of becoming in
curable.
"The world procrastinated on AIDS. Don't let the same thing
happen with tuberculosis," said Richard Bumgarner, deputy direc
tor of WHO's TB program.
Tuberculosis kills more people — 3 million a year — than all oth
er infectious diseases combined. About a third of the world's popu
lation is infected with the TB germ and 8 million people get sick
every year.
Yet just $1 of every $30 spent on infectious diseases goes to the
deadly lung infection, WHO said.
The world gave developing countries $16 million in aid to com
bat TB in 1990, a year that 1.9 million died from TB. But the world
came up with $77 million to fight leprosy, which killed 2,000 people
that year, and $185 million for AIDS, which killed 200,000.
"Something is seriously wrong," said Dr. Arata Kochi, WHO's
TB chief.
Developing countries need $100 million a year to fight TB suc
cessfully, WHO estimated. With that money, TB's toll would drop
to 1.6 million deaths annually by the 21st century, Bumgarner said.
Without it, the toll will rise to 4 million annually, he said.
Indeed, U.S. officials had virtually stopped funding TB work in
the early 1980s because the disease had become so rare here. But it
is rebounding, with 26,763 cases here last year, a 20 percent increase
from 1985.
Tuberculosis cures start at just $13 a patient in some developing
countries, and $100 typically buys 29 healthy years for TB patients,
compared with 11 years for AIDS patients and two years for malar
ia victims.
But the costs skyrocket with the rapidly increasing drug-resis
tant strains of TB. When people don't finish their medicine, their TB
mutates to become drug-resistant and the strains spread. In New
York it costs $180,000 to treat someone with drug-resistant TB.
Police investigate deaths of psychic's followers
Some victims' families
say woman used mind
control for financial gain
The Associated Press
DALLAS — Some current and former fol
lowers of Terri Hoffman say she's a psychic.
Others contend she's a phony who used her
"powers" for financial gain.
Ten associates of the self-proclaimed spiri
tual adviser, who went to federal court Mon
day on bankruptcy fraud charges, have died
over a period spanning more than a decade.
Victims include two of Hoffman's husbands.
Families of some former followers contend
the 55-year-old woman used mind control to
profit from and cause untimely deaths or sui
cides of the 10 associates.
Four of the victims committed suicide. Most
left everything to Hoffman, a high school
dropout who claims she can communicate
with an assortment of spirits.
The Dallas County district attorney's office
has been-investigating the deaths, but no
charges have yet been filed in any of them.
Wearing a black dress, Hoffman sat impas
sively and gazed downward while her defense
attorney, Shirley Baccus-Lobel, and prosecu
tors questioned 47 prospective jurors in the
bankruptcy fraud case.
Baccus-Lobel said jury selection was "about
what I had expected," with more than a half-
dozen of the prospective panelists saying they
were familiar with the psychic's legal battles.
Questions, including whether prospective
jurors could render a fair and impartial verdict
in the case, were "the same types typically
asked in a case like this," she said.
But Baccus-Lohel, who had instructed
Hoffman not to talk to reporters, said she was
not familiar with her client's claim of psychic
powers.
Hoffman declined questions later as she re
entered the courtroom.
Prosecutors had said the government's case
stemming from Hoffman's 1991 bankruptcy
would probably not involve any religious or
mystical themes.
See Psychic/Page 2
Bishops rally for colleague
accused of sexual abuse
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - U.S. bish
ops rallied around embattled
Chicago Cardinal Joseph
Bernardin Monday, standing and
cheering for their colleague ac
cused of sexually abusing a teen
ager more than a decade ago.
While abuse victims stood out
side asking the church to let the
courts decide, some 300 prelates
opened their fall meeting express
ing their faith in Bernardin's inno
cence.
"To Cardinal Bernardin, we of
fer our support, our full support,"
declared Archbishop William
Keeler, president of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In another development, a
Chicago archdiocesan panel con
cluded after an initial inquiry that
Bernardin does not pose a risk to
children and should not be placed
on leave pending further investi
gation.
At the bishops' meeting, a
tired-looking Bernardin, 65,
showed the turmoil of the last
three days on his face as he again
faced the media to profess his in
nocence.
See Bishop/Page 5
Inside
Sports
• Red Army invades G. Rollie
White
►Metcalf eases into
retirement
Page 7
Opinion
•Vasquez: Fear of flying
makes plane trip interesting
Page 9