News to Use 1993

                        OF NOTE...

                        News to Use

Special Family Edition (41-50)                       December 1, 1993

Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                            CURE, Ltd.

                               Against the Odds

"Sara Peters weighed 15 ounces when she was born. A large box of

Cheerios weighs more. She was so tiny that she could wear her mother's

engagement ring-a size 4-on her arm. and at only 25 weeks, she was so

premature that doctors at Fairfax Hospital gave her virtually no

chance of survival....As a team of doctors and nurses in the delivery

room worked intensely on Sara's fragile body, her 27-year-old mother,

Tracy Peters, looked over her newborn daughter kick her feet. 'Fight,

Sara!' Peters shouted. 'You can do it!' Sara did." (Tiny Sara's Big

Battle, Patricia Davis, Washington Post, 11/9/93)

                             Body Language

"More than a million Americans have undergone liposuction, says Dr.

Peter Bela Fodor, former president of the Lipoplasty Society of North

America, making it the most commonly used cosmetic surgery procedure.

...But liposuction is not for everyone. It cannot correct obesity, as

many people once assumed. And its popularity, says Dr. Eugene Curtiss,

chief of plastic surgery at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachu-

setts, has attracted many physicians who lack surgical training.

'Anyone with an MD can advertise himself as an expert in liposuction,'

says Dr. Curtiss. 'They do it for one simple reason: money.'" (Should

You Change Your Body? Caryl Stern, Parade Magazine, 7/11/93)

"Most people who develop tennis elbow don't play tennis. The painful

condition, whose formal name is lateral epicondylitis, was first

described in tennis players in 1882." --Dr. Ramesh Gidumal, New York

University School of Medicine. (Tendon Tension, Gidumal, WT, 7/28/93)

"Most Americans need to become more physically active. We recommend

that every adult male should accumulate at least 30 minutes or more of

exercise most days of the week." --Walter Dowdle, director, Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ABLEnews Editor's Note: I

don't reckon finger-pressing the old keyboard counts. (Exercise: A

Little Bit'll Do You, Sally Squires, Washington Post Health, 8/3/93)

"The days of having an exercise class called aerobics are history.

People today are looking for specific types of activity, movement and

music that they find enjoyable." --Lori Davis, fitness director,

Torrence-South Bay, CA YMCA. (From Bubba Funk to Cardio Combat, Carol

Krucoff, Washington Post Health, 8/3/93)

"Surely they can't keep their secret much longer. Baby boomers are

well on their way to becoming Generation C--the Compromise Generation.

...The nation's almost 78 million boomers--born between 1946 and '64

...once...were dedicated to hard bodies and alfalfa sprouts. Now they

are buying 'relaxed fit' jeans with a tad more room in the seat and

thighs. Their Nikes are seeing more time in grocery aisles than

aerobic sessions...And occasionally they are eating ice cream and--

gasp--red meat." ABLEnews Editor's Note: How did that song go? Oh,

yes, "talkin' 'bout my generation." (Accepting Fatter as Their Fate,

Karen Peterson, USA Today, 8/10/93)

"If people are obese because they choose to live that lifestyle or be

in that condition, then no, they should not be protected under the

act. But if they're obese because of a circumstance like a medical

condition, then yes, they should be protected." -R. Kevin Adams, 34,

general manager, Cumberland, MD. (Question: Should the Americans with

Disabilities Act Protect Obese People? USA Today, 11/15/93)

                           Cancer Chronicles

"Cancer is a family affair. As the husband of a breast cancer

survivor, I'm appalled that some husbands are not supportive when

their wives need them most. I like to think that we've been married

for better and for worse." -Charlie McKinnie, whose wife of 31 years,

Harley, is a seven-year breast cancer survivor. (Cancer's Impact on

the Family Discussed, Bernard Little, Stripe, 10/29/93)

                               Care Less

"To many doctors and ethicists, surgery that has almost no chance of

success is morally and economically indefensible. 'It's certainly not

the best way to spend scarce resources,' says [Arthur] Caplan,

[director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of

Minnesota]. But the Lakebergs, who have no medical insurance, refuse

to let the extraordinary expense of surgery stand in their way.

'Families won't say 'stop' because they don't want to feel guilty.'

says Caplan. 'You've got to present options in a way that let doctors

bear the responsibility and the burden.'" CURE Comment: The "burden"

of what? Euthanasia. The families CURE defends don't say "stop"

because they love their children, their spouses, their parents,

regardless of disabilities, illnesses, and age. Unlike Dr. Caplan,

they don't understand why it is the lives of the loved ones of the

poor, the uninsured, and underinsured don't deserve the same vigorous

defense as the baby of a Rockefeller, the mother of a Kennedy. They

have no reason to feel the guilt that should be the normal reaction of

those who harass them and even go to court to declare them incompetent

because they are incapable of understanding why their baby's life must

be sacrificed on the altar of checkbook euthanasia. 

                             Child's Play

"We're seeing 10-year-old girls and boys with the kind of catastrophic

knee injury we once saw only in football players. Kids never used to

get stress fractures, and now we see them all the time." --Lyle

Micheli, MD, orthopedic surgeon, co-author, American College of Sports

Medicine guidelines. ABLEnews Editor's Note: For a free copy of the

guidelines, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Children and

Athletics, c/o ACSM, PO Box 1440, Indianapolis, IN 46206-1440.

(Playing Safe, Carol Krucoff, Washington Post Health, 9/14/93)

                             

                               Class Act

"This book has the wrong title. 'From cradle to grave' implies

socialism, doesn't it? Some British labor leader giving a dull speech?

This book isn't about socialism--doesn't even touch on it. 'The face

of human poverty'? Not really. Large chunks of this short little

missive are devoted to overspending and the misuse of institutional

wealth. I'm not in the title business, but how about this:

'Bureaucracy Busters: How Brave Americans Took on the System and Won'?

Common, vulgar, glitzy, perhaps, but at least it gives you a hint

about its content...What this volume contains is a very short list of

on-the-spot grass-roots American agencies that have jumped in to help

at crucial moments, when the insurance company won't pay any more, or

high school kids go ape-crazy in the classroom, or when

welfare...makes the husband move out of the house so the wife can

collect her payments. Freedman is dead right that many social

agencies--both public and private--have evolved into monsters." (The

Climb Out of Poverty, Carolyn See, review, From Cradle to Grave: The

Face of Human Poverty in America, by Jonathan Freeman, WP, 10/1/93)

                               Cloning Around

                                      

"The cloning of human embryos by scientists at George Washington

University raises ethical questions that neither science nor the

government is ready to answer. 'The fact that there is a total moral

vacuum in this whole area is now finally being realized,' Cynthia

Cohen, head of the National Advisory Board on Ethics and Reproduction,

said. Jeremy Rifkin, president of a biotechnology watchdog group, said

human cloning represents a destructive type of genetic engineering.

...Cohen said the whole idea raises the 'chilling' possibility of

mass-produced humans, or identical twins created at will for spare

parts.... Rifkin's group, the Foundation on Economic Trends,

threatened to file lawsuits if the National Institutes of Health did

not stop all federal sponsorship of human embryo research." (Cloning

Raises New Ethical Questions, Morning Herald, 10/26/93)

"The Vatican...sharply criticized the cloning of human embryos and

said the United States must regulate unscrupulous scientists who

'venture into a tunnel of madness.' The harsh words ran in a front-

page commentary titled 'A Perverse Choice' in the Vatican's official

newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Echoing through the article was

insistence by Pope John Paul II that the end does not justify the

means." (Vatican Issues Harsh Words Against Experiment, MH, 10/26/93)

                                      

"Dr. Hall's experiments purposely used defective embryos that would

die of their own accord. Nevertheless, man is not known to shun

technological breakthroughs, so sooner or later-and probably not too

much later-we'll have to figure out what bounds should be placed on

cloning. Eventually, would parents perhaps keep a clone in cold

storage just in case a family member might need an organ or tissue

transplant? What is to be done with non-defective embryos used in

future experiments-should they be nurtured to birth? Would it become

common practice for parents to 'select' their children according to

certain physical or mental characteristics?" CURE Comment: With the

search-and-destroy missions of prenatal euthanasia the latter is

already the tragic case. Note the editorial's endorsement of the

discriminatory concept that human beings who have disabilities-in

"quality-of-life" jargon, who are "defective"-are fair game as guinea

pigs. (Cloning's Implications Serious, editorial, MJ, 11/8/93)

                           Courting Disaster

"Dan and Cara Schmidt, the Iowa couple who waged a successful battle

to regain custody of their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, were reportedly

furious...that the child's custodial parents [Jan and Roberta DeBoer]

had allowed her to be photographed by Time magazine in violation of a

court order...In an apparent eleventh-hour pitch to influence the

court of public opinion, the DeBoers spoke to both publications [Time

and People] separately about their pain. The Schmidts refused to

participate in either story." (Photos Fuel Adoption War, WP, 7/13/93)

In a 4-to-1 decision the West Virginia Supreme Court returns four-and-

a-half-year-old Daniel Snyder to his mother Gretchen, 43, of Cross

Junction, VA, despite her history of mental illnesses and a suicide

attempt. Diagnosed with manic depression in 1979, Snyder had signed

over temporary custody to her sister Nancy Scheerer in March 1989

after release from her hospitalization following a suicide attempt.

Citing a 1981 US Supreme Court ruling rejecting termination of

parental rights solely on a history of mental illness, the WV high

court finds "little support" for the circuit's ruling that "the

potential for future harm justifies the denial of custody." "Such a

conclusion, while laudable in its obvious intent to protect the

innocent child, infringes too profoundly upon the rights of this

natural parent to her child and is based on mere speculation as to the

future course of the...disorder," the majority decision holds. (Court

Returns Boy to Custody of Mother, Martinsburg Journal, 7/18/93)

"On July 2 the Michigan Supreme Court ordered Robby, 35, and her

husband, Jan, 40, to give up their only child. Specifically, the

DeBoers were ordered to return their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Jessica,

whom they have raised since birth to the girl's biological parents.

Dan and Cara Schmidt...by August 2...One of the harshest critics was

Barbara Schlicht, a former girlfriend of Dan's, who is also the mother

of Amanda [Dan's 13-year-old daughter]. Since her birth, Dan has had

virtually no contact with Amanda...In Barbara's view the Michigan

decision amounted to 'court-sanctioned child abuse.' 'He wants that

child back and wants to make a family,...but he doesn't give a rat's

butt about Amanda.'" (Battle over Jessica, Bill Hewitt and colleagues,

People, 7/19/93)

Lawyers for 14-year-old Kimberly Mays, who seeks to sever ties with

her birth parents, tell a Sarosota judge that Kimberly's mother is

like an "obsessed stranger stalking her prey" and that granting her

visitation rights will destroy Kimberly. Lawyers for Kimberly's

natural parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, counter the Twiggs have a

God-given right to see their daughter, mysteriously switched with

another infant at a rural Florida hospital in 1978. (Lawyers in 'Baby

Swap' Case Conclude Their Arguments, William Booth, WP, 8/11/93)

Christian Scientists David and Ginger Twitchell were convicted of

involuntary manslaughter in the 1986 death of their two-year-old son

Robyn, who died from a bowel obstruction after they relied on

"spiritual" in lieu of medical healing. "In a 6-1 decision, the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned the verdict on a

narrow point of law. The justices said the Twitchells 'reasonably

believed' they could rely on spiritual treatment without fear of

criminal prosecution because a church publication the father had read

suggested as much. The argument should have been presented to the

jury, the court said...[leaving] it to prosecutors to decide on a

retrial...Between 1980 and 1990, seven Christian Scientist parents

were prosecuted on charges ranging from murder and manslaughter to

neglect. Five were convicted, one was acquitted, and once case was

dismissed." (Parents Cleared in Court, Martinsburg Journal, 8/12/93)

Having ordered the Christian Science Church to pay $5.2 million in

damages in the death of Ian Lundman, an 11-year-old diabetic boy, who

did not receive medical treatment, a Minneapolis jury adds another $9

million in punitive damages in a suit brought by Ian's father Douglas

against his former wife Kathleen, her husband William McKnown, the

church and church officials. According to one juror, the issue was not

religious freedom but whether the boy had any choice in determining

medical care that could have saved his life. (Church Damages

Increased, Washington Post, 8/26/93)

Donnell Robinson, the Prince William toddler whose violent death last

May sparked reviews of Virginia child abuse laws, was shaken so hard

that blood vessels in his eyes burst, as his brain was whiplashed back

and forth with five times the gravitational force that would cause a

jet pilot to blackout. Craig Futterman, a pediatrician who treated

Donnell in Fairfax Hospital's emergency room, testified the 2-year-

old's injuries could only have been caused by "shaken baby syndrome."

Fatai Olatoni "Tony" Okedji, the 28-year-old boyfriend of Donnell's

mother, Bevene "Clare" Adams, has been charged with second-degree

homicide. The toddler's babysitter charges Prince Williams officials

were not aggressive enough in handling her abuse complaint against the

pair filed three weeks before Donnell's death. Okedji faces a maximum

of one year imprisonment and a $2,500 fine in an earlier assault on

Donnell, described by defense attorney's as "a disciplinary beating,".

('Shaken Baby Syndrome' Cited in Death, Spencer Hsu, WP, 9/3/93)

"The stocky, middle-aged man had been referred to me for psychiatric

treatment as part of a court-ordered rehabilitation program designed

to curb his domestic violence...'Take my daughter,' he said with

pride. 'She knows right from wrong now. When I call her she's already

petrified when she gets to my chair. She's in tears before I even

touch her. If I just use a certain tone of voice, she'll start

trembling.' Before he spent 15 minutes in my office, I knew I disliked

him intensely...If I had been introduced to him in...a social setting,

I would have done my bet to avoid him. As a psychiatrist, however, I

couldn't avoid him. Moreover, I knew I would have to forge enough of a

connection with him and delve deeply enough into his life to try to

help him. The empathic imperative is both the heart of effective

psychiatric practice and one of the most emotionally draining aspects

of practicing psychiatry...We are routinely called upon to summon a

regard even for those who have no regard for us, themselves, or

others." --Keith Ablow, MD, medical director, Tri-County Mental Health

Centers, Lynn, MA. (Personality Conflicts, Ablow, WP Health, 9/21/93)

"John and Mary James," a suburban Maryland couple were about to drop

their suit against a fertility specialist for using his own sperm to

father their two young children, after a federal judge ruled they

could not use pseudonyms when the case went to trial. But an appeals

court is asking the judge to reconsider. "They want to sue Cecil

Jacobsen. They feel they've been wronged. But more than anything else,

they want to protect their children, and if the court had not granted

then anonymity, they would not have gone forward with this case." --

William Snead III, the couple's attorney. (Judge to Reconsider Plea

for Anonymity, Bill Miller, Washington Post, 10/6/93)

                            Dateline World

"The tourist industry brings in $4...to 5 billion into Thailand

annually. Many of the 5 million tourists...see the Buddhist temples,

but Patpong Street, where sex is the business, is an even bigger

attraction. And...child prostitution is a growth industry...The

Norwegian government prepared a report on the number of children for

sale globally. They estimated 1 million, most of them in Asia, with a

concentration of kids for sale in Bangkok." (Freedom and Slavery, John

Cavanaugh-O'Keefe, op ed, National Catholic Register, 7/11/93)

 

"Feeding hungry orphans in Russia is not only good humanitarianism and

good American defense policy, it's good business, says former US

Ambassador Gilbert A. Robinson. If the big corporations want to cash

in on what may be a future gold mine of markets in the Commonwealth of

Independent States, they should start now by showing some sacrifice of

good will, he says." (Firms Adopt Feeding Plan for Orphans. Larry

Witham, Washington Times, 11/16/93)

"Sabrina Adams jumped up from her chair, grabbed a point-and-shoot

camera off the kitchen table, and shoots a quick picture of 5-month-

old Alexander stroking the family's calico cat. A cute-as-heck photo

for the family album, sure. But for Adams, the simple action means a

lot more. At the end of September, when Adams met her son-to-be at an

orphanage in Tver, Russia, she had expected to pick up her newly

adopted son and daughter and bring them to the United States. What she

didn't expect was spending three weeks cutting through Russian and US

red tape in the midst of a near-revolution before she could bring them

home...to West Virginia." (After Red Tape and Revolution, Russian

Babies Have New Home, Kerry Lynn Fraley, Martinsburg Journal, 11/13-

19/93)

                               Facts of Life

Dr. Estelle Ramey, an endocrinologist at Georgetown University School

of Medicine, says girls have an edge over boys "from conception."

Comparing fetal development to a production line, she notes there are

no interruptions in the development of baby girls, but boys experience

a change after six weeks in their mother's womb. And while girls have

two complete sets of genes, boys have only one X and one Y chromosome,

with no replacement if one is damaged. "The female resists stress far

better than males," she concludes. "Consistently females did better

than males in survival." (Expert Says Battle of the Sexes Is a Matter

of X and Y, Peggy Swisher, Martinsburg Journal, 10/9/93)

                             Family Affair

The American Academy of Pediatrics' "Family Shopping Guide" lists

models of children's car seats manufactured to comply with current

federal safety standards. To obtain your copy, send a self-addressed,

stamped business-size envelope (SASE) to: AAP, Dept. MCW-1993 Car Seat

Shopping Guide, PO Box 927, Elk Grove Village, IL 60009-0927.

(Choosing a Safe Car Seat, Fran Jordan, WPH, 6/22/93)

"The speakers at the [funeral] service talked about the man's human

connections to family and friends. Even his business associates made

no mention of his many professional accomplishments but focused on

what kind of person they had come to know and love. 'Whoever dies with

the most toys wins' was regarded as a funny thing to say in the late

'80s, but since that day I've no longer been able to find the slogan

amusing." (Funerals Can Teach Lesson in Living, Michael Levine, op ed,

USA Today, 6/29/93)

Held in her half-sister Jessica's lap, 2 1/2-year-old Katherine Rose

Ahalt, of Martinsburg, WV, watched her favorite purple dinosaur dance

and march and sway to a dozen lively songs in her very own living

room." Katie, who has metachromatic leukodystrophy, could no longer

dance with her big friend, but she could and did smile, thanks to the

Make-a-Wish Foundation. The family was overwhelmed. "I think they're

wonderful," said Jessica, 16. "When they called, I was shocked, didn't

know what to say," her mother said. "I'm happy that it's going to make

her happy." (Barney Grants a Wish, Martinsburg Journal, 7/12/93)

Nicole Schoo, 10, and her sister Diana, 5, left at home during their

parents' Christmas vacation in Mexico are about to begin a new life

with their new adoptive parents. ('Home Alone' Kids Put Up for

Adoption, Kevin Johnson, USA Today, 7/12/93) 

"All welfare reform tends to founder on the same rock. The question is

how to reduce the number of families on the rolls without penalizing

the children...A critical issue in moving people from welfare to work

has always been to make work pay. A working parent having to buy

health insurance and child care will often have less to live on then a

stay-at-home welfare recipient on Medicaid." Editor's Note: As a

former head of New Hampshire's Work Incentive Program to assist AFDC

families into financial independence through employment, I found the

discrimination against the working poor and against intact families to

be two of the most egregious aspects of the welfare system. (The

Welfare Puzzle, editorial, Washington Post, 7/14/93)

"We need a new national policy to provide America's welfare recipients

a way to break the unending cycle of dependency and to make their way

off the welfare rolls. We need to expand workfare, not welfare. Able-

bodied welfare recipients of both state and federal programs have a

responsibility to participate in workfare, and states have the

obligation to do so. Through workfare programs, recipients can begin

to enter the mainstream and become self-sufficient." --Senator Alfonse

D'Amato (R-NY). (Welfare Is No Cartoon, D'Amato, let-ed, WP, 7/14/93)

"Why, as statistics confirm, is the traditional American family

disappearing? Allan Carlson, in this well-researched and clearly laid-

out book, offers an analysis of American social history which attempts

to answer that question. He asserts that the weakening of the American

family began when a home-based economy gave way to an  industrial-

based one." (The Family and Progress, George Neumayr, rev of "From

Cottage to Work Station: The Family's Search for Social Harmony in the

Industrial Age by Allan Carlson," National Catholic Register, 7/25/93)

"They took Jessica away yesterday. If you were watching television,

you know this. You saw her leave the DeBoers' house and you saw her

being placed in the minivan. And through the glass you saw her cry.

Not a gentle whimper, not an angry scream, but a heart-wrenching open-

mouthed wail--the most vivid expression of terror and sadness that a 2

1/2-year-old could produce." (The Real Power of the Tube, Ellen

Edwards, Washington Post, 8/3/93) 

"In an instant, Jan and Roberta DeBoers' 29 months as parents was

over. 'Mommy!' 2 1/2-year-old Jessica screamed...as she was whisked

away from the only home she has known, away from her swing set, away

from her dog. The weeping DeBoers made a final lunge at the dark-

haired toddler they had fought a fierce legal battle to keep. They

were restrained by friends as their attorney carried Jessica away from

their two-story house, adorned with signs that made one last heart-

breaking plea to Jessica's biological parents. 'Dan and Cara, please

don't take our little Jessica away,' read the signs punctuated with a

red heart that was split in two and dripping red tears." (Weeping

Jessica Taken to New Life in Iowa, Washington Post, 8/3/93)

"We've been inundated with calls...You can take as much of the risk

out as possible but until their rights are terminated birth parents

have control over what happens to the child." --Susan Freivalds,

Adoptive Parents of America. (Jessica's Case Puts Adoptive Parents on

Edge, Julie Szekely, USA Today, 8/4/93)

"Baby Jessica's tearful return to her birth parents should not have

happened...an overwhelming 78% told a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll...the

toddler should have been able to stay with the people who raised her.

...The public has 'heard the child's wails,' Barbara Hanshu, American

Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, said." (Sentiment Strong Against

Jessica Ruling, Sandra Sanchez, USA Today, 8/4/93)

"Anyone who watched the heartbreaking scene on television as the

wailing Jessica was taken away from Jan and Robert DeBoer had to

conclude that something went terribly wrong and somebody in this drama

was villainously selfish. But the truth is a lot more complicated than

that." (Keeping the Next Jessica From Crying, Judy Mann, op ed,

Washington Post, 8/6/93)

"It is true, as the article ['Baby-Making in a Test-Tube,' Lifeline,

July 27] stated, that many couples who are unlikely to benefit from

IVF [in vitro fertilization] seek and receive the treatment, but as

long as the procedure is profitable there will be physicians willing

to perform it." --Paul Hurwitz, Silver Spring, MD. (High-Tech Family

Formation, Hurwitz, letter-editor, Washington Post Health, 8/10/93)

"Most worrisome to some experts is the child's age. Jessica was

removed at a time when children are particularly attached to their

parents an rely almost exclusively on them for a sense of security and

a sense of themselves. Stripping a child of these attachments can

impair his or her ability to trust others and, ultimately, to form

satisfying relationships in adulthood. For a 2 1/2-year-old, such a

move 'is a kind of psychological death,' said Stephen P. Herman, a

child psychiatrist affiliated with Yale University's respected Child

Study Center...one of two dozen child development experts who...stated

that it was in Jessica's best interest to remain with the DeBoers."

(Uprooting Jessica, Sandra Boodman, Washington Post Health, 8/10/93)

"The biological parents of baby Jessica brought her to their home for

the first time...The father, frustrated by media coverage of the case,

shoved one photographer and sprayed a hose at others." (Baby Jessica's

Father Threatens, Lashes Out at Media, Martinsburg Journal, 8/11/93)

"President Clinton's welfare reform task force heard firsthand...about

the anguish of life on public assistance...There were pleas to put the

Internal Revenue Service in charge of collecting child support

payments, calls to 'trash' and then rebuild a system that has become

an 'American nightmare' and charges that the poor have been

'colonialized' into substandard and dangerous housing...Clinton has

promised to 'end welfare as we know it.' He has said that welfare

recipients..should be required to work after two years of benefits."

(Mothers tell of Life on the Welfare Rolls, MJ, 8/12/93)

"The only good thing about the Baby Jessica case is that they

refrained from splitting her Solomon-style, right down the

middle...Instead they decided to go with the ancient law of DNA, which

says that children should be as genetically similar to their parents

as possible. This, of course, makes perfectly good sense if you're

raising those children to be a source of tranplantable organs--heart,

kidney, liver, etc.--for your own eventual use. But if you're not

raising your children to be organ donors--if you simply happen to

enjoy their company--then there is no reason to pay any attention to

the law of DNA, which originated in the age of pterodactyls and lava

pools."  ABLEnews Editor's Note: Thou shalt not kill is an old

concept, too, but does genuine progress mandate jettisoning all

ancient moral norms? Leaving aside the merits of this particular case,

where quite frankly I favored leaving Jessica with the only parents

she had known, I find Ehrenreich's cavalier dismissal of the

biological bond between parents and child as prehistoric chilling.

(Want a Child? Take My Son? Barbara Ehrenreich, op ed, Time, 8/16/93)

"The girl who was swapped at birth in a hospital and won a court order

barring her biological parents from contacting her says she looks

forward to a normal life of school and boys--but no children of her

own. Kimberly Mays, 14, responded...to comments by the attorney for

her birth parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, that even when she is an

adult they will seek visitation rights to her children as the

biological grandparents. 'I'm not going to have any kids,' Kimberly

told a news conference. "I don't want them to go through what I went

through.'" ('Baby Swap' Girl Won't Have Kids, MJ, 8/21/93)

Surrogate mother Susan Chamberlain says her $25,000 deal to bear a

child for Joseph and Jean Kaplan was voided when she and Kaplan had

sex several times in the Kaplan home and a Long Island motel rather

than using artificial insemination, but Anthony DiSanti, a court-

appointed guardian, for Susan's 3-month-old son favors custody for the

Kaplans, citing their "moral fitness." (Surrogate Mom Sues for

Custody, Martinsburg Journal, 8/21/93)

"It's been four years or so since Michael Jackson moved into his

private preserve, the Neverland Valley Ranch. Located about an hour

north of Santa Barbara [CA], it's like a cross between the old family

homestead in the San Fernando Valley, which apparently was not the

happiest place on earth, and a certain Anaheim attraction

n named after Walt Disney that likes to believe it is. The recent

accusation that the singer molested a 13-year-old Beverly Hills boy

has drawn more attention to the ranch and its attempt to bridge the

unhappy childhood Mr. Jackson lived with the happy childhood he

didn't. It's every child's dream: a private amusement park. But now

the public wonders whether there might be a dark side to this kiddie

paradise." (Storm Clouds Swirl Above Neverland, Chris Willman and

Jeffrey Staggs, Washington Times, 9/3/93)

"As Dr. Judith Reisman wrote a decade ago, in his chapter on Child

Sexuality in 'Sexual Behavior in the American Male,' Kinsey & Co.

claimed that based on scientifically validated methods, they had

proven that children, including infants, 'sought adult sexual

attention naturally and were unharmed by adult and child sexual acts--

inclusive of fondling and intercourse and that in many cases children

were benefited and enriched thereby.'...In a new book, 'Degenerate

Moderns' (Ignatius Press) E. Michael Jones further investigates Dr.

Alfred Kinsey...'Beneath all the high-sounding ideas,' writes Jones,

'one detects the unsavory odor of hypocrisy and mendacity, and beneath

that sexual compulsion masquerading as scientific interest.'"

(Original Dirty Old Man, Pat Buchanan, op-ed, WT, 9/8/93)

"Most mothers hope that when their daughters enter adolescence, they

can help them achieve a full and happy life. But many mothers know

instinctively what recent studies have consistently demonstrated;

Between the ages of 9 and 12, when a girl is finishing her grade-

school years and entering junior high, her self-esteem often drops, as

does her performance at school and her outlook on life." (In an Age of

Conflict, Barbara Mathias, Washington Post, 9/20/93)

The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect reports that children

with disabilities are abused and neglected far more frequently than

other children. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), sponsor of the 1988

legislation mandating the study, says its findings underscore the

"tremendous economic and social pressures that are crushing" many

families with children who have disabilities and the need to help

them. (Disabled Children Are Abused Most, Washington Post, 10/7/93)

"Little kids can get very scared" by witch, devil, or dragon costumes.

"It's the whole idea of badness." --Joan Kinlan, MD, president-elect,

Washington chapter, American Academy of Child and Adolescent

Psychiatry. (For Young Children, It Isn't Just a Costume, Sandra

Evans, Washington Post Health, 10/12/93)

"Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard Law professor is the mother of a grown

son born to her when she was 27 and two little boys she went to Peru

to adopt as infants when she was well past 40. She had spent the

previous 10 of the intervening years in unsuccessful treatment for

infertility that culminated in multiple trials of in-vitro

fertilization (IVF), the test-tube baby technique." (Quest for a

Child, Judith Randal, review of Family Bonds: Adoption and the

Politics of Parenting, by Elizabeth Bartholet, WP Health, 10/12/93)

The Census Bureau reports the number of American farm families has

become too small to count, adding that living on a farm is no longer

an indication that one is a farmer. Between 1910 and 1920, before

government financial and agricultural policies sought to eliminate

small farmers, more than one-third of Americans were involved in

family farming, nut by 1991, the number of farm residents had dropped

to 4.6 million less than 2 percent of the population. ABLEnews

Editor's Note: With the death of the family farm the heart of America

grows weaker. (Endangered Species, Wanderer, 10/21/93)

"Because Stern learned to get along in a shaming family environment

...he successfully recreates this pattern on his show. Underneath he

still fears the shame and humiliation of his childhood...His father

has always engaged in verbal put-downs. He calls Howard a moron, and

now Howard refers to others in the same manner. He learned from his

father the sense of power that comes from demeaning and humiliating

people." --one of two psychological profiles by psychotherapists of

Howard Sterns published in his book, "Private Parts." (Howard Stern,

All Id, No Lid, Richard Harrington, Washington Post, 10/28/93)

"It is extraordinary to think that the federal government wants to run

an experiment to test what will happen when poor families with

children have nothing to live on." -Mark Greenberg, senior staff

attorney, Center on Law and Social Policy, who says "the Clinton

administration has opened a Pandora's box with its decision to let

Wisconsin push some families off welfare after two years." (Wisconsin,

Georgia Get OK to Test Welfare Limits, Martinsburg Journal, 11/2/93)

"A fledgling movement whose goal is to strengthen the communities of

families, schools, and neighborhoods urged Congress to adopt pro-

family policies, including fringe benefits for parttime workers,

guaranteed child support payments, and elimination of the tax penalty

for married couples." ('Communitarians' Press Hill on Pro-Family

Policies, Barbara Vobejda, Washington Post, 11/4/93)

According to a study commissioned by the Department of Health and

Human Services, 22,000 babies were left in hospitals by parents unable

or unwilling to care for them. Three out of four of the "boarder

babies" tested have been exposed to drugs, and three out of four of

the abandoned babies are African American (Twelve percent are white,

and 8 percent Hispanic.) (Study Finds 22,000 'Boarder Babies' in US,

Barbara Vobejda, Washington Post, 11/10/93)

                           

                              FDA Files

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Endocrinologic and Metabolic

Drugs Advisory Committee recommends FDA approval of Nutropin,

Genetech's recombinant human growth hormone, which may help children

with kidney failure keep growing. (FDA OKs Growth Drug to Help Kids,

Morning Herald, 10/25/93)

                           Food for Thought

"The US government under Presidents Reagan and Bush supported a

'negligible [cancer] risk' approach for both processed and raw foods.

President Clinton is on the same track." (In Search of Pesticide

Peace, Goody Solomon, op ed, Washington Times, 6/28/93)

Researchers at Duke and Indiana University find that moderate drinkers

of one glass of wine, mixed drink or beer a day at age 66 to 76 have

slightly better reasoning ability than twin brothers who drank more or

less. (A Drink a Day to Make You Think, Mike Snider, USAT, 6/29/93)

"In Jurassic Park, dinosaurs are created using DNA from prehistoric

blood-sucking insects. Although the movie is extremely farfetched,

crop plans with genetic materials from moths, mice, fireflies,

viruses, and bacteria have already been created. Biotechnology

companies are already on the verge of bringing foods from such crops

to the market...Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration's

current policy for safety testing and labeling of genetically

engineered foods protects the biotechnology industry rather than

consumers." --Rebecca Goldburg, senior scientist, and D. Douglas

Hopkins, senior attorney, Environmental Defense Fund. (They're

Fiddling with our Food, Goldburg and Hopkins, op ed, USAT, 6/30/93)

"The report says 'Don't be scared,' yet they come out with this thing

that tries to scare you half to death." --Eileen Morse, Fairport, NY,

whose daughter and three grandchildren live with her, on the National

Academy of Sciences' report warning of the dangers posed to children

by pesticides in food. Editor's Note: For protective tips see ABLEnews

to Use on Tainted Produce on the ABLEnews echo and in the upcoming

July ABLEnews Review. (Parents Weigh Nutrition, Risk to Children,

Nikki Maute, USA Today, 7/1/93)

"We found that the anti-inflammatory action of chicken soup may

explain its salutary effects. We postulated that chicken soup may stop

neutrophil migration, thereby reducing inflammation, and indeed that

is what happened in the lab," --Dr. Stephen Rennard, California

researcher. (Grandma's Penicillin, Donna Thompson, CTC, 7/11/93)

While true food allergies affect fewer than 2 percent of the US

population, food sensitivity or intolerance affect many more. To

receive a free brochure from the American Academy of Allergy &

Immunology, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: "Understanding

Food Allergy," PO Box 1144, Rockville, MD 20850. (Do Some Foods Make

You Sick? Fran Jordan, Washington Post Health, 7/13/93)

When cows are sick they may be given antibiotics, which are often

found in their milk subsequently. While the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) sets "safe" levels of antibiotics in milk,

researchers at Rutgers University find "even those 'safe' levels might

be detrimental to the public's health." (Milk Drinkers Beware, Donna

Thompson, Catholic Twin Circle, 7/18/93)

According to a study conducted by Michael Siegel of the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health,

and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association

(JAMA), waiters, bartenders, and other food service workers face a

significantly elevated risk of lung cancer from breathing customers'

cigarette smoke. (Restaurant Employees' Risky Business, Sandra

Boodman, Washington Post Health, 8/3/93)

Motivated by an outbreak of food poisoning last January traced to

undercooked hamburgers tainted with E. coli bacteria that led to the

deaths of two children, The Agriculture Department orders that all raw

or partially cooked meat sold in America after October 15 must be

labeled with safe handling instructions. (US Orders Labels on Raw

Meat, Martinsburg Journal, 8/12/93)

"For spectators in the slow, clause-by-clause trench warfare that

finally produced nutrition labeling on packaged foods in 1992, the

swift adoption of safe-handling labels on meat and poultry is a

refreshing contrast. The reason is simple enough: On this matter the

Agriculture Department happened to be in substantial agreement with

the main outside campaign pressing for labels, scientist Jeremy

Rifkin's Beyond Beef...The Beyond Beef campaign, whose longer range

purpose is cutting world beef consumption in half, criticizes the

mandated labels for lack of specifics...It's a good start and it ought

to proceed." (Safer Meat, editorial, Washington Post, 8/17/93)

"The Clinton administration is preparing to ask Congress to relax a

long-standing ban on cancer-causing pesticides in food. The move is

part of a plan to revise food safety standards, administration

officials said. The most controversial part of the package is...the

'negligible risk factor' standard...(that) would...allow (pesticides)

that present a lesser risk. The cutoff point is still being

debated...That proposal would replace the Delaney Clause of the

Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which strictly prohibits

carcinogens in processed foods...Environmental groups are opposed to

any weakening of the Delaney Clause. 'It's very difficult to conceive

of a food safety plan that is worth its name that doesn't contain a

strong support for Delaney and an expansion of that concept, rather

than a weakening of it,' said Jay Feldman, executive director of the

National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides...Representatives

of the food industry, who have long worked to see pesticide

restrictions loosened voiced...support for the package." (Relaxed Food

Safety Rules on Pesticides to Be Sought, John Schwartz, WP, 8/20/93)

"There's no getting around it: The magnitude of one's blood pressure

correlates neatly with the circumference of one's waist. Which means,

two new studies conclude, that losing just a few pounds can make a

long-lasting dent in many cases of mild hypertension...Adding modest

doses of medication to such healthful lifestyle changes can further

lower blood pressure, reducing the risk of stroke or heart attack. An

estimated 50 million Americans have hypertension (many of them

unknowingly)." (Pounds and Pressure, Rita Rubin, USNWR, 8/23/93)

"I think there's no question any longer of the relationship between

diet and chronic diseases and the consequences children face of

lifestyle dietary patterns that are too often high in fat and sodium." 

--Ellen Haas, Assistant Secretary for Food and Consumer Services, US

Department of Agriculture (USDA). 25 million children take part in the

school lunch program where only 2 percent of the fruits and vegetables

provided free to schools are fresh. While Dorothy Caldwell, president

of the American School Food Service Association, welcomes USDA's

promise to increase fruits and vegetable in school lunches, Caldwell

is concerned that the produce arrive in satisfactory condition so that

they "will be eaten by the students who will benefit from them." (USDA

Seeks to Improve School Lunch Nutrition, Carole Sugarman, WP, 9/8/93)

"The way we guarantee water safety for the American people is broken

and it needs to be fixed." --Carol Browner, administrator,

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announcing Clinton

administration legislative proposals to strike a balance between

assuring citizens that public water supplies are not contaminated and

satisfying concerns of local government officials about the costs and

burdens of meeting current federal safety requirements. Eric Olson, an

attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, however, is wary

that the "fine print" in the Clinton proposal giving flexibility to

local governments might allow them to "evade national standards

completely." (Drink Water Proposals Combine Aid, Flexibility, Tom

Kensworthy, Washington Post, 9/9/93)

According to French scientists, fish, vegetables, a sprinkle of olive

oil, bread, fruit, and a glass of wine is the ideal menu to avoid

heart ailments, when combined with reduced meat consumption and

avoidance of butter and cream. (Heart Patients Prosper on

Mediterranean Diet, Washington Post Health, 9/14/93)

The world's largest preventable cause of mental impairment, iron

deficiency, would costs pennies a day to prevent, James Grant,

executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),

advises. (Iodine Deficiency Has Cheap Solution, Sandy Rovner,

Washington Post Health, 9/14/93)

The Clinton administration's bid to move the authority to inspect meat

from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) is running into heavy flak on Capitol Hill.

Leading the barrage is House Speaker Thomas Foley, a Democrat from

Washington state where tainted hamburgers killed three children last

January. Other opponents of the White House plan include Rep. Kika de

la Garza (D-TX), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee; Rep.

Charles Stenholm (D-TX), a member of the same committee; and Sen. Dale

Bumpers (D-AR), a member of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations

Subcommittee. (Foley Leads Opposition to Food-Safety Changes,

Christopher Hanson, Washington Times, 9/16/93)

"Most Americans...eat Chinese food all wrong. The dishes most people

like best...are the least healthy ones: moo shoo pork, sweet-and-sour

dishes, and beef with broccoli. 'Look at older Chinese,' says Carrie

Chang. 'They're not fat.' Native Chinese and Chinese-Americans eat

four times as much rice with their meals and tend not to eat much of

the rich sauce that comes with beef, chicken, and vegetable dishes.

The typical American diner often dumps an entire entree--sauce and

all--on top of a mound of rice. 'The rice soaks up the sauce, and

you've got yourself a cholesterol bomb,' says researcher Hurley."

(Pork, Sweat, and Tears, Julie Tilsner, Business Week, 9/20/93)

"'Life's uncertain. Eat dessert first.' It's a playful bumper-sticker

slogan, but when it comes to feeding kids some nutritionists treat it

like the gospel. Desert first? Have they flipped their carbohydrate

lids?" (Why Not Desert First? Carole Sugarman, WP Health, 9/21/93)

"This is an epidemic. Americans are talking health and being couch

potatoes and eating a high-fat diet. There are too many work-saving

devices. We're not using our bodies." --Dr. George Blackburn, Harvard

Medical School. (Fat Keeps Winning Battle of Bulge, Nanci Hellmich,

USA Today, 9/23/93)

"Only time will tell if an alligator can be domesticated or whether it

is better off in the bayou. Consumer advocate Ellen Haas, who spent

her career snapping at the heels of the Department of Agriculture, has

finally stepped inside. As USDA's assistant secretary for food and

consumer services, Haas is the nation's top school lunch lady." (From

Adversary to Appointee at Agriculture, Carole Sugarman, WP, 10/4/93) 

"Is a diet worth $179.89 per pound? That's the cost of shedding and

keeping off excess weight in a popular, medically supervised liquid-

diet program, according to a new study. The study, which looked at one

of several programs that limit patients to 450 to 800 calories

generally by protein drinks, documented that it is costly for patients

to participate in these programs and that the outcome is often poor."

(High Cost of Shedding Pounds, Christine Russell, WP Health, 10/12/93)

"Roasted chicken outlets are cropping up faster than you can scramble

an egg...The advantage of roasted chicken over fried chicken is less

fat, particularly at places that use rotisserie cooking...But unless

consumers are willing to also strip roasted chicken of its tasty skin,

the savings in calories and fat will not be very significant." (Pick

of the Chick: Roasted vs. Fried, Sally Squires, WP Health, 10/12/93)

"She once got herself in trouble by putting down the home-baked

cookie, and now Hillary Rodham Clinton has "dissed" another humble

culinary staple-the pea. 'Hardly anyone likes peas,' Clinton said...as

she visited the set of "Sesame Street' in New York to record some

health advise for preschoolers....Big Bird disagreed with the first

lady." (On the Pulse, Washington Post Health, 10/19/93)

"One of the great insults of aging is the advice from family members

to eliminate or curtail a lifelong coffee or tea habit because of

concerns about is effects on heart conditions and cancers. Two new

studies are suggesting that caffeine may not play a troublesome role

for women...Pamela Starke-Reed, the coordinator for nutritional

research at the National Institute on Aging,...said that caffeine may

be useful as a cognitive stimulant in older people. But she cautioned

that for about 5% of Americans, caffeine 'either makes them too hyper

or its acid content causes gastric problems.'" (Quiz Caffeine's Impact

on Older Women, Sandy Rovner, Washington Post Health, 10/26/93)

"We can't continue to deep fry our children's health." --Mike Espy,

Secretary, Department of Agriculture, releasing a report finding that

America's school cafeterias give students too much salt and fat,

contributing to cancer, heart disease, and other ailments. According

to the report, school lunches exceed governmental dietary guidelines

for fat by 25%, and saturated fat levels by 50%. Sodium is nearly

twice the recommended amount. (School Lunches Criticized, MH, 10/27/83)

In advertisements in Cosmopolitan, Kathy Morgan claims she "lost 52

pounds with the most amazing diet discovery available today!"

According to the ads, the discovery: the LIPO/Trim pill "makes it

possible to loose 6 to 10 pounds a week, while eating fried chicken,

meatballs on a hoagie roll, pork chops, double burger and would you

believe even Belgian waffles and pancakes with syrup. " "These false

promises hurt consumers' health and their pocketbooks."  Richard

Schrader, acting commissioner of New York's Department of Consumer

Affairs, charging Hanover Labs and six other firms with deceiving and

misleading consumers." (Those Fat-Pill Ads Thin on Truth, Rosemary

Lavan, New York Daily News, 10/28/93)

"Some of the 30,000 doctors, nurses, and researchers at the American

Heart Association's annual meeting talk healthy diets out of ones side

of their mouth, and put burgers and fries in the other. At lunch they

clogged their arteries with meals high in cholesterol, fat, and

sodium, all of which contribute to heart disease. 'It was convenient

and quick,' Dr. Paul Colavita said as he gulped down a Big Bacon

Classic Burger and Biggie Fries at a Wendy's near the convention site

the Georgia World Congress Center. But doesn't it set a bad example

for doctors to be seen eating such fatty meals? 'Not me, because I

took my name tag off.' Colavita said." (Do As I Say, Not as I Do:

Heart Doctors Load Up on Junk Food, Martinsburg Journal, 11/10/93)

                            Heart Stoppers

"Ultimately, Marcia Rimland saw death as the only protection for

herself and her 4-year-old daughter. 'Please forgive me,' said her

suicide note to her two grown children. 'I have no choice.' She was

certain--dead certain--that her estranged husband had been sexually

abusing their daughter Abigail. But Abigail's father, and a judge,

said that the abuse never occurred, that the child was coached, that

Rimland was overly protective--or vengeful. When [Family Court Judge

William Warren] ruled that Abigail's father, Arie Adler, could

continue to visit Abigail, Rimland brought a final, horrific end to

the dispute." (Fear of Sex Abuse Leads to Child's Murder, Mom's

Suicide, Martinsburg Journal, 7/12/93)

A special section of the Summer 1993 Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare

Ethics is devoted to neonatal euthanasia. "Quite possibly as a natural

outgrowth of the euthanasia movement there," the editors observe,

"concerns about incompetent patients qualifying for the 'kindness' of

euthanasia have led to reports of active involuntary euthanasia, not

only of adults but of handicapped newborns." (Infanticide Rampant in

the Netherlands, NRL News, 9/30/93)

The arrest of 30-year-old Gail Savage of Wauconda, IL on charges of

killing her three babies, whose deaths were first ascribed to sudden

infant death syndrome, raises a disturbing question. "How many SIDS

deaths are actually homicides?" According to experts, the answer is

unknowable. Dr. Maria Valdes-Dapena, a pediatric pathologist at the

University of Miami, estimates no more than 2 percent of SIDS cases

are actually slayings, but others put the number as high as 10

percent. (Scientists Still Struggle With the Enigma of Crib Death,

Martinsburg Journal, 9/28/93)

The Dana Foundation is underwriting a three-year, $2.5-million project

to discover the genetic basis for manic-depressive disorder which

affects one out of one hundred Americans (two and a half million).

Prof. Kay Jamison, of John Hopkins, says finding a genetic link will

add to early diagnosis. CURE Comment: Let's hope early diagnosis leads

to early treatment and not early euthanasia as all too often occurs.

(Genetic Source Sought for Manic-Depression, WP Health, 10/19/93)

                        Lights, Cameras, Action

"'I cannot do this. Not only do I feel it's wrong personally, it's

totally against the character.'" --Susan Howard, actress. Ms. Howard,

a regular on the TV show 'Dallas,' rejected a script that called for

her to abort a Downs syndrome baby. The changed script provided for a

miscarriage with Ms. Howard subsequently doing volunteer work with

Downs children, a portrayal for which she won an acting award." (CGA

World, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1993)

"Everyone loves a love story, and 'Sleepless in Seattle' delivers the

goods without sex or violence. It even suggests that responsible

parenting can be a turn-on...But [writer-director Nora Ephron's]

characters' constant references to 'An Affair to Remember' [Leo

McCarey's 36-year-old classic] only hints at the older film's real

subject matter...'An Affair to Remember' illuminates its characters'

moral choices...(and) reveals the power of love to redeem lost souls

when it is formed by fidelity and suffering. 'Sleepless in Seattle' is

about the excitement of being IN love WITH love. Its charm is only

skin deep." (In Love with Love, John Prizer, rev, NCR, 7/18/93)

                            Medicine Chest

Health magazine warns that iron, an essential nutrient for expectant

mothers can be a death sentence for inquisitive toddlers. Eating just

six of the shiny, brightly colored, sugar-coated pills can kill a one-

-year-old. (Pills that Kill, Donna Thompson, CTC, 8/1/93)

                          

                          No Place Like Home

"New York City's new policy on homelessness sounds straight forward:

the city will shelter only families who have no adequate place to

live, screening out those with apartments of their own or friends or

families they can stay with. But carrying out the new eligibility

rules...will be anything but simple. Most of the thousands of families

who ask the city for shelter each year are not literally living on the

street with no roof over their heads. Rather, they are doubled up in

cramped apartments with their mother, aunts, cousins, or friends."

(New York Confronts Its own Shelter Rule, Celia Dugger, NYT, 8/12/93)

According to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

in a Baltimore federal court, city police and 35 "public safety

guides" hired by merchants under a special taxing authority "have

engaged in an apparent effort to expel an entire class of citizens

from the downtown area...based on their appearance and homeless

status." Sue Goering, legal director of the Maryland AC:U, charges,

"There was a decision by the city that it's not good for business, not

good for tourists, to have homeless people on the streets." ABLEnews

Editor's Note: I don't imagine it's all that great for the homeless.

(ACLU Sues Over Treatment of Homeless in Baltimore, Paul Valentine,

Washington Post, 8/19/93)

Larry Melton and Charles Squires have disabilities and have been

unable to find work. Until recently they lived at the Federal City

Shelter in Northwest Washington. The shelter, which is run by the

Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV), moved to evict the pair

after they criticized shelter policies on WPFW-FM. The evictions have

been upheld by a federal judge and CCNV director Carol Fennelly says,

"Now they'll both be out on the street." ABLEnews Editor's Note: I

don't know how "non-violent" that is, Carol, but it sure is

"creative!" (Judge Says CCNV Can Expel 2 Men Who Criticized Shelter,

Michael York, WP, 9/2/93)

With "scarcely a whisper from the White House," Senate and House

conferees ratified the termination of the Interagency Council on

Homeless to the dismay of advocates like Joan Alder of the National

Coalition for the Homeless. "Rather than kill the council we had hoped

the new administration would strengthen it," she lamented. (Federal

Council for Homeless Dies, Guy Gugliotta, Washington Post, 10/18/93)

                          Public Health Post

"Despite a natural home-state pride, the nomination of Arkansas' own

Dr. Jocelyn Elders as US Surgeon General should not delight those of

us who suspect that the social unraveling of America will require a

more subtle prescription than condoms all around...Let it be said that

Dr. Elders never made a secret of her views, or tried to disguise them

with the usual euphemisms. For that she deserves respect...Or, so it

seemed until last week. That's when it turned out that the Arkansas

Public Health Department has been distributing condoms with defects 10

times the normal rate...and that Dr. Elders, that eloquent orator,

never said a word about it. Not a whisper." --Paul Greenberg,

editorial page editor, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Little Rock, AR.

(Arrogance that Blinds, Greenberg, op ed, Washington Times, 7/28/93)

Stay 'Tooned: Boy, wearing jacket bearing "City High" stands hand-in-

hand with girl before condom vending machine whose lever is labeled

"free." The legend on the package he holds reads: "Warning: The

Surgeon General nominee has determined that practicing sexual

abstinence until you get married isn't worth mentioning." (Benson,

Arizona Republic, 1993)

"Dr. Jocelyn Elders, Pres. Clinton's nominee for surgeon general, has

been seeking confirmation under what may be a smokescreen of deception

and doublespeak. Dr. Elders, speaking...at a Department of Health and

Human Services meeting...asserted, 'The federal government will make

sure that every state provides comprehensive health education for all

children because we are holding the checkbook.'... This statement...is

at variance with Dr. Elder's testimony before the Senate Labor and Human

Resources Committee. There she repeatedly expressed support for local

control of education. 'I do not believe,' she said, 'that we can dictate

from above what communities need.'" "Dr. Elders' history reveals her as

a social reconstructionist, a social engineer, who would be capable of

side-stepping parents and local school boards to achieve her goals...Her

carrot-and-stick tactic is a common federal practice, leaving one to

only guess at which approach will predominate. Whatever the case, she is

being positioned to have a great deal of power." (Smoking Screen on

Elder's Sex-Ed Plan, Lawrence Criner, op ed, Washington Times, 8/26/93)

"Jocelyn Elders is a national leader in the fight to promote healthy

and productive lives for all Americans, especially our children. We

need this kind of courage and conviction as we work to tackle the

public-health challenges of the day." --T. Berry Brazelton, professor

of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School. (Jocelyn Elders's Compassion,

Brazelton, letter-editor, Washington Post, 9/2/93)

"We want to make it clear that this was a dubious apology...since she

didn't take back any of her false accusations. She says she's not a

bigot, but she goes around talking like one." --Patrick Riley,

director, Office of Governmental Affairs, Catholic League for

Religious and Civil Rights, on Surgeon General nominee Dr. Jocelyn

Elders' apology to Catholics for "any offense" her controversial

remarks may have caused them. "About Jocelyn Elder's apology, it's not

an apology, since a key ingredient of an apology is a recognition of

being wrong. What's clear is that she will disagree with people on the

most personal terms possible rather than answer them on the merits of

their criticism." --James Smith, director of government affairs,

Christian Life Commission, Southern Baptist Commission, who has been

advised by Arkansas associates that when Elders directed the state

Health Department for Gov. Clinton she "treated evangelicals with

disdain" and "vilification." (Catholics, Baptists Find Elders' Apology

Lacking, Joyce Price, Washington Times, 9/3/93) 

                              School Daze

"The Chronicle of Higher Education...published...'Overcoming Legal

Barriers to Regulating Hate Speech on Campus,' a chilling presentation

of the argument for limiting, if not actually suppressing, free speech

on American college campuses...The authors of the article are Richard

Delgado, a professor of law at the University of Colorado, a Jean

Stefanic, a 'research associate in law' at the same institution...In

the ideal world as visualized by Delgado and Stefanic, the

expectations of the state are high indeed...These scholars of the

law...have it in mind to forbid 'severe, disruptive, face-to-face

insults' of any kind. The example they offer is illuminating, if

ludicrous:'...a professor saying to a student in the professor's

office, 'You incompetent, illiterate fool.'' If that's an example of

punishable speech, then we'd just as well admit the sky's the limit.

Anything that rubs some tender psyche the wrong way is grounds

for...what? Dismissal? Denial of tenure? Imprisonment? Drawing and

quartering? Take your pick. In the fascist state no punishment is

beyond imagination, and no power of enforcement too extreme. 'Free

Expression Monitors,' indeed! Send in the Gestapo." ABLEnews Editor's

Note: I'd like to express my opinion of Delgado and Stefanic but I'd

hate to be charged with a "hate crime" by the thought police, besides

Jonathan Yardley has done so with his customary clarity. (The Code

Word: Alarming, Jonathan Yardley, op ed, Washington Post, 8/16/93)

"We have to move beyond overviews into giving people an educational

experience, and sit down and teach people skill and techniques, and

get them into resources and reading and practices." --Elliott Dacher,

MD, creator of Northern Virginia Community College's mind-body

curriculum, which Dacher says embodies three principles: "[1] Health

is more of a verb than a noun, an intentional choice of attitudes and

behaviors that orient one's life in the direction of health and

wholeness. [2] Disease and adversity of any sort can serve as an

opportunity to develop new resources and capacities. [3] The shift

from treatment to healing emphasizes the importance of education and

self-learning and self-development as mind-body health care tools."

CURE Comment: We have seen ample evidence of Dacher's second principle

during our 12 years of service as a patient advocate network.

(Wellness 101, Margaret Mason, Washington Post, 10/18/93)

"More and more, parents are bombarded with reports of dangers in their

children's schools: from other students, from school food, from school

buildings themselves. How real are these dangers and what can parents

do to protect their children?"  Colin Greer, president, New World

Foundation. (How Safe Is Your Child's School? Greer, PM, 11/7/93)

"Some parents at the prestigious National Cathedral School were

horrified recently when a homework assignment depicted what's been

interpreted as a negative racial stereotype. The fifth-grad math

riddle talked about gum-chewers being 'loud, drooly, and eventually

toothless.' It was illustrated by a pigtailed black child surrounded

by gum wrappers and looking startled. The non-gum-chewers ('neat,

prim, and watch their grammar') were represented by a placid-looking

white boy." (Homework That Didn't Make the Grade, Lois Romano,

Washington Post, 11/9/93)

"Doubts were expressed in early 1990 when Whittle Educational Network

launched Channel One...a daily newscast to be shown in high school and

junior high school classrooms....At the time, the doubters had little

more than a few hunches on which to base their opposition. Do kids

already saturated by television outside school need more of it inside?

And who is Christopher Whittle, the Channel One creator...with all the

markings of a money-monger to be opening a captive-audience market for

such advertisers as Pepsico, Mars, and Reebok?...The speculation can

stop. Channel One ought to be Channel Zero-it is worse than originally

thought." (Time to Pull the Plug on Channel One, Colman McCarthy,

Washington Post, 11/9/93)

                              TABulations

"Eugenics, a science to 'improve' the human race by preventing births

of the handicapped and encouraging births of those with 'superior'

genes, was quite powerful in the United States in the early part of

this century. It led to compulsory sterilization of many retarded and

insane people and to anti-immigration legislation. After the horrors

of the Nazi regime in Germany discredited the idea of eugenics, the

American Eugenics Society lowered its profile and eventually changed

its name to Society for the Study of Social Biology--a group that

still exists today. Eugenicists helped establish such influential

groups as the Population Council, the Planned Parenthood Federation of

America, and the American Society of Human Genetics, a major force in

the spread of prenatal testing and 'selective' (eugenic) abortion." (A

Different Take on the March of Dimes, Mary Meehan, NCR, 8/29/93)

                            Under the Dome

Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) leads the opposition to Pres. Clinton's

Surgeon General nominee, Dr. Jocelyn Elders, whom he calls a "radical"

for her outspoken advocacy of abortion, sex education, and condom

distribution to minors. Although some opponents concede the nomination

will be approved, Nickles says, "I haven't given up hope." Adds Sen.

Trent Lott (R-MS), "Who knows what will happen over the August recess

as more information gets out about this nominee's background?" (Senate

Republicans Hold Up Vote on Elders Nomination, MJ, 8/3/93)

"The Senate engaged in an often testy daylong debate...over the

controversial nomination of Jocelyn Elders as surgeon general...

Tempers flared when Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) accused Elder's

opponents of using 'character assassination'...'This nominee has

become the subject of an inquisition,' argued Moseley-Braun,

contending it would be 'unconscionable' to delay action to give

Elders' opponents more time to 'dig up dirt.' Sen. Don Nickles (R-

OK)...accused Moseley-Braun of violating Senate rules by imputing

'unbecoming motives' to other Senators. This prompted an angry but

only partially audible exchange of words between Sens. Edward M.

Kennedy (D-MA), an Elders supporter, and John McCain (R-AZ), a foe of

the nomination. Moseley-Braun apologized." (Elders' Nomination as

Surgeon General Stirs Sharp Debate, Washington Post, 8/6/93)

"Whatever Charles Foster can't give his son, Douglas...he can always

give him the look. I first saw it two weeks ago, as Foster, 37,

watched Douglas bouncing on his mother's lap. The child, 5, couldn't

stop laughing....Many loving parents stare at their kids that way.

Foster's look only seemed striking because he and his wife, Marcy, are

white and their adopted son is black-or as Dougie himself describes it

'brown.'...Always controversial, transracial adoptions are getting a

closer look, thanks to the Senate's consideration of a bill that says

race can't be the sole consideration of in children's foster care and

adoption placement....Critics, such as the National Association of

Black Social Workers, say such adoptions wouldn't be necessary if

agencies tried harder to find black adoptive parents. They fear that

black children raised in a white milieu may not appreciate their

heritage, culture, and themselves as African Americans." (A Rainbow

for Dougie, Donna Britt, op-ed, Washington Post, 11/2/93)

VITAmins

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing new regulations

which would allow products containing the recommended dosage of folic

acid, one of the B-complex vitamins, to advertise they could prevent

some birth defects. 6% of breakfast cereals are fortified with 100% of

the daily requirement of folic acid. Cecilla Royals, of Women

Entrusted, a group that encourages respect for women whose unborn

children have disability, is calling on government officials and

private sector leaders to promote a public awareness campaign. (Is

Folic Acid a Prolife Concern? Dale O'Leary, NCR, 7/4/93)

                               

"The FDA's [Food and Drug Administration] report listing 500

unsubstantiated claims on vitamins and dietary supplements

demonstrates that this industry is incapable of responsible self-

regulation. It is discouraging that the bills [before Congress]

proposing to allow the marketing of vitamins, minerals, and dietary

supplements with unapproved health claims on their labels are

attracting broad bipartisan support." (More Power to the FDA--Not

Less, Steven Berizzi, Riverside, CT, letter-editor, WP, 8/13/93)

An FDA plan to subject supplement label claims to scientific standards

is the first attempt to regulate a $3-billion-a-year industry that

came of age in the flower-power days of the 1960s and is profiting

from the health craze of the baby boomers. But a bill sponsored by

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Bill Richardson (R-NM), requiring

that labels provide "truthful and non-misleading" information based on

the "totality" of scientific evidence, does not mandate FDA approval

for supplement labels. (In the Vitamin Wars, Industry Marshals an Army

of Citizen Protesters, Michael Weisskopf, Washington Post, 9/14/93)

"For decades the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American

Medical Association, and the pharmaceutical industry have been trying

to destroy the present free market in nutritional supplements by

classifying them as drugs, controlling their health claims, and making

them available by prescription only. Each time they have been driven

back by public rage. But they now appear close to success in at least

one of these goals by controlling the health claims of foods, of which

supplements are a category." (The War on Vitamins, Jane Ingraham, New

American, 11/1/93)

                             Word of Life

"Hundreds of Southern Baptist Churches offer Christian weight loss

programs. Presbyterians urge their congregations to explore the

connection between health and faith in asking them to swear off

tobacco. And a new Recovery Bible geared to alcoholics equates the

'higher power' often referred to in 12-step programs to God."

(Churches Focus on Link Between Body, Faith, MJ, 7/11/93)

Worth Noting

At the University of California at Irvine, researchers at the Center

for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory have determined that 10

minutes of listening to a piano sonata by Mozart raised the measurable

IQ of college students as much as nine points. While classical music

may enhance abstract reasoning by reinforcing complex patterns of

neural activities, the researcher believe the simpler, repetitive

rhythms of rock and New Age may interfere with abstract reasoning.

(IQ: Mozart Strikes a Chord, Washington Post, 10/15/93)

                        Wish We'd Said That...

     Something in the heart and mind of every man and woman

     recognizes truth, reality, objectivity, the given of life.

     Having seen the truth, we then choose, for or against.

     Education is therefore not automatic. It begins with a moral

     choice, for or against truth. From their education goes in

     either of the two directions: to enhance truth, or, at the

     expense of truth, to enhance someone's private agenda. It is

     the most basic of all choices we make, the foundation upon

     which all other choices are made, the results of which lead

     to life or death. (Earle Fox, DPhil)

                           ...Glad We Didn't

     The administration deserves some considerable credit and

     strong public support. (Jeff Nedelman, president of the

     Grocery Manufacturers of America, on the Clinton proposal to

     allow cancer-causing pesticides in food)

                        A Word From Our Sponsor

OF NOTE is CURE's biweekly digest of disability/medical news. This Special

Edition focuses on one of many topics it covers. The editor, Earl Appleby,

is the moderator of ABLEnews, a Fidonet backbone conference, featuring

news, notices, and resources of interest to persons with disabilities and

those sharing their concerns.

Special Editions include Abled, AIDS, Cancer, Family, Health Care,

Legal, Medical, Mental Health, Seniors, and Veterans.

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley

Springs, West Virginia 254511 (304-258-LIFE/5433).