News to Use 1993

                         OF NOTE...

                        News to Use

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

Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                            CURE, Ltd.

                               ADA Acts

"For the physically challenged, sometimes it is more than the physique

that gets challenged. Sometimes your sense of pride takes a beating

too. That's how it was for Rick Douglas when he was told that if he

wanted to board a United Express commuter plane recently at Dulles

International Airport, he would have to crawl into it. So he did. Mr.

Douglas, who uses a wheel chair because of multiple sclerosis, dragged

himself up five steps and crawled into the plane...At the other end,

he had to drag himself off...Mr. Douglas...has more clout than most of

the disabled do. He happens to be executive director of the

President's Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities. And

the whole sorry episode could hardly have happened on a more

appropriate occasion. Mr. Douglas was flying to give a speech in

Allentown, Pennsylvania to celebrate the first anniversary of the

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)." (Flattening Obstacles in Lives

of the Disabled, Clarence Page, op ed, Washington Times, 8/6/93)

"Your July 20 editorial 'The Disabilities Act's down side' presents a

distorted and inaccurate picture of the Americans with Disabilities

Act (ADA) and employers' efforts to comply with the law. Contrary to

your assertion, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

has not found employers to be 'newly hesitant to hire the disabled.'

Rather, consistent with the ADA, most employers are earnestly

complying with the law and are beginning to focus on individual's

abilities, rather than disabilities. These good-faith efforts further

the ADA's goals of eliminating discrimination due to unfounded and

misinformed myths, fears, and stereotypes about disabilities." --

Philip Calkins, acting director, Communications and Legislative

Affairs, US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, DC.

CURE Comment: Why is it that victims of discrimination are always

expected to accept the "good faith" of those with a track record of

discriminating against them? Frankly, we'd be a lot more impressed

with some hard data showing decreased unemployment among people with

disabilities than the standard political rhetoric that we find quite

patronizing. After all, "faith" without "works" is dead. (Employers

Aren't Tied Up by Disabilities Law, Calkins, let-ed, WT, 8/10/93)

                                Body Politic

"During Waco we learned that there were a number of self-destructive

cults in the country and one of them is the Clinton administration.

He's had two good days out of about 260. If this was baseball, he'd

have been sent back to Albuquerque by now." --Mark Russell, comedian.

(The Clinton Camp Drawn and Quarterly, Howard Kurtz, WP, 10/18/93)

                           Courting Disaster

"Times change. First ladies can now aspire to being 'de facto public

officials,' formal extensions of the president, presumably even

getting themselves into positions to be impeached or, if their

husbands are men enough, fired. The US Court of Appeals for the

District of Columbia made it official: Hillary, as head of the Task

Force on National Health Care Reform, is the equivalent of a

"government employee." (No salary, but look at the benefits.) She

doesn't have to open her meetings to the public." (First Lady's New

First, Suzanne Fields, op ed, Washington Times, 6/28/93)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have settled a lawsuit accusing

Michael Levey, a California television producer, of making misleading

'infomercials,' including a pitch for "EuroTrym" diet patches hosted

by Michael Reagan, son of the former president. (Producer Settles FTC

Suit Alleging False 'Infomercial' Claims, Ross Kerber, WP, 6/30/93) 

"The case began in 1988 when attorney William Bentley Ball of Harris-

burg, PA sued the public school district for refusing to provide an

interpreter for James (Zobrest), a student at Salpointe Catholic High

School. Previously, James had attended the public Arizona School for

the Deaf." (Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District) (Supreme

Court Upholds Religious Rights in Zobrest Decision, Wanderer, 7/8/93)

Target Stores will award $1.3 million to prospective security guards

who took the Rodgers Condensed CPI-MMPI, or 'psychscreen,' between

1987 and 1991 in California. "A number of questions on the test are

extremely invasive on matters of sexuality, religion, bodily 

functions, and the like," says Brad Seligman, the Oakland attorney who

filed the class action lawsuit in 1989. (Suit Over Store Test Is

Settled, Martinsburg Journal, 7/11/93)

"I hope that the United States government reflects on its actions and

that this never happens again." --Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, tho

was released from a US prison last December after a federal judge 

dismissed all criminal charges. "Alvarez, whose April 1990

kidnapping...severely strained US-Mexico relations, says he suffers

from heart trouble and psychological trauma stemming from his

abduction and subsequent 32-month incarceration. Alvarez blamed his

father's fatal heart attack last fall to the stress associated with

the abduction....US authorities accused the physician of complicity in

the 1985 kidnapping and murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena...The

federal judge who acquitted Alvarez and ordered his release called the

government's case 'wild speculation.'" (Physician Kidnapped by DEA

Files Claim for $20 Million, Patrick McDonnell, LAT, 7/12/93)

Jeremy Rifkin's The Foundation on Economic Trends and the Physicians'

Committee for Responsible Medicine is suing the National Institutes

for Health (NIH) for violating their own rules for protection of

children. The suit filed in Federal District Court in Washington, DC

charges that NIH experiments using genetically engineered human growth

hormone hGH on "short children" between the ages of 9 and 14 exposes

them to greater than minimal risk, while failing to present a prospect

of direct medical benefit. (Lawsuit Targets NIH Child Growth Research,

Robin Herman, Washington Post Health, 7/13/93)

"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)

"The former business manager and the former director of the Eastern

Panhandle Mental Health Center--both charged with obtaining money

under false pretenses--could also soon face charges of embezzlement.

...Embezzlement means that the person in question was legally in

possession of the money and then, after the fact, converted it to his

or her own use. Obtaining money under false pretenses alleges that the

person charged with the crime intentionally defrauded someone else to

obtain the money." (Berkeley Cases Returned to Jury for New Charges,

Kelli Shores, Martinsburg Journal, 7/14/93)

"Dr. Leo Alexander, who researched information on Nazi Germany for the

United States during the Nuremberg war crimes trials, warned just

before his death in the '80s...that in modern America (like Germany of

the '30s) 'the barriers against killing have been going down.'...In

early November, Dr. Jack Kevorkian declared that assisted suicide

should be used for quadriplegics, whom he considered in 'emotional

pain.'... Howard Simon. director of the Michigan branch of the

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said it should be an 'option'

for those with a permanent disability...This year, the Michigan ACLU

launched a suit to legalize assisted suicide...The ACLU suit set no

standards of proof assuring that the people involved wish to die and

were not killed against their will...There are many who would be only

too glad to take advantage of this--relatives who do not wish to care

for sick patients, heirs who want their money, nursing homes or

hospitals with prejudices against them. Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger of

Syracuse University...estimates that such policies account for 200,000

to 400,000 deaths each year." (A Clear and Present Danger, Ron Siegel,

op ed, CTC, 7/18/93) Editor's Note: Ron wrote an amicus curiae for the

Handicapper Caucus of the Michigan Democratic party in the ACLU case.

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)

"The [California state Supreme Court's] first right-to-die decision...

came in the case of Howard Kelly Andrews, a prisoner at the California

Medical Facility in Vacaville. In May 1991, Andrews...jumped or fell

from a cell tier at Folsom prison...He was permanently paralyzed from

the shoulders down. [The] ruling affirmed lower court rulings over the

past decade on the right to die and emphasized it was not limited to

patients who are terminally ill or suffering excruciating pain."

(Court Rules in Favor of Right to Die, Washington Times, 7/28/93)

Kimberly Chandler, 27, who fatally shot her three children, ages 7

months to 7 years, was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a

three-judge panel, which "accepted the reports of psychologists who

diagnosed her as suffering from depression and paranoia. She will

remain at a maximum security psychiatric hospital until doctors say

she no longer is mentally ill. Police say she bought a pistol with

welfare money and shot her child and a neighbor's child. They said she

threatened to kill the children earlier because she couldn't take the

stress of being a single parent." (Woman Who Killed Her Kids Found

Insane, Washington Times, 7/28/93)

"According to an Associated Press story, the Kentucky Supreme Court

ruled July 15, that a lady in coma, Martha Sue DeGrella, 44, could be

killed by starvation and dehydration. Not unexpectedly, the language

of the court attempted to cover up what it was really allowing...In a

feat of semantic gymnastics it went on to say that 'nothing in this

opinion should be construed as sanctioning mercy killing.' Having said

this, the court ruled that you could stop giving this lady food and

water, knowing full well that within approxinmately ten days after

they quit feeding and giving her water she will die as a result of the

agonizing process of dehydration and direct starvation. This is a sad

day for Kentucky. It certainly sets a precedent for killing other

helpless patients." (Euthanasia in Kentucky, Right to Life of Greater

Cincinatti Newsletter, 8/93)

Sigfried Cruz, 40, of Clarksburg, WV, files a $6 million lawsuit

against the West Virginia University College of Law charging his test

score should not have been a deciding factor when he was denied

admission in 1990, and again in 1991, because it was not "a good

indicator of what a disabled person can do in school." Cruz says he

was rejected because he is Hispanic and disabled. (Disabled Hispanic

Man Sues Law School, Martinsburg Journal, 8/11/93)

                                                        

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)

"Q. Why does California have the most lawyers and New Jersey the most

toxic waste dumps? A. Because New Jersey had first choice. Gags like

this get Michael Scanlon Jr. fighting mad. The American Bar

Association's new...consultant has heard just about every snide lawyer

joke making the rounds--and he is not amused. 'Some cross the line

from humor into bashing,' he says. 'And when something does cross the

line, we have a right to speak out.'" (First, Kiss All the Lawyers,

Andrea Sachs, Time, 8/16/93)

Dr. Jack Kevorkian is charged with violating Michigan's law banning

"assisted suicide" by Wayne County Prosecutor John O'Hair. "The man

who has become known as 'Dr. Death' all but invited the prosecution

when he called a news conference August 5 and described in detail how,

a day earlier, he had helped Thomas Hyde [30] commit suicide by

inhaling carbon monoxide in the back of Kevorkian's van...Kevorkian's

lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said he welcomed the prosecution as an

opportunity to demonstrate the law was the product of 'the religious

nuts and lunatics we've elected' to the state legislature." CURE

Comment: It is not surprising that a doctor who has no respect for

life has a lawyer with no respect for law. But does O'Hair? Fieger's

"opportunity" is anything but heaven-sent, as the purported

"prosecutor," a public advocate of legalizing "assisted suicide,"

"expressed sympathy and even admiration for Kevorkian's goals."

(Kevorkian Charged in Assisted Suicide, Edward Walsh, WP, 8/18/93)

"In an unusual criminal prosecution, a California district attorney is

arguing that a woman who died after an alleged rape was murdered

because she lost her will to live. The 79-year-old woman died last

year, about a month after the alleged assault, of congestive heart

failure and renal failure. A 19-year-old man...was subsequently

indicted in February on first-degree murder and sexual assault

charges." (Murder Charge in a Case of Rape Stretches Limit of Legal

Theory, Junda Woo, Wall Street Journal, 8/23/93)

                             

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)

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)

A Montgomery County, MD judge freezes the assets of Rockville

accountant Thomas Karam and his wife in connection with a $15-million

civil lawsuit by Fairfax Anesthesiology Associates Inc. who charge

that Karam moved some $13 million of its money, repaying all but $2.5

million--a charge Karam's attorney Richard Hibey says his client

"adamantly" denies. (Doctors Sue Accountant in Case of Missing Funds,

William Powers, Washington Post, 9/3/93)

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)

"We're certainly concerned for anyone who believes they've been harmed

by our product. However, there's a growing base of scientific

evidence...consistently showing that there is no link between silicone

breast implants and disease. We believe women who have had breast

implants should be reassured by this." --Kara Kuchinic-Wittenberg,

spokeswoman for Dow Chemical Company, on suit by 22 women claiming

multiple health problems, including breast tenderness, arthritis, skin

disorders, increased risk of cancer, and hair loss. (WV Women File

Suit Over Breast Implants, Martinsburg Journal, 9/9/93)

"Americans want quality health care. To achieve that goal, to assist

the president and Mrs. Clinton in this effort, we must make sure we do

our part...to eliminate excessive costs and delays in setting up an

efficient, effective health care system." --Attorney General Janet

Reno, announcing new guidelines by the Department of Justice to let

health care providers know if they can enter mergers and joint

ventures without violating federal antitrust laws. Mrs. Clinton,

visiting the Justice Department, applauds the DOJ action. Dr. James

Todd, AMA executive vice president, finds it "a good first step," but

calls for further relaxation a federal antitrust laws. (Health Care

Industry Gets Government Antitrust Help, Jerry Seper, WT, 9/16/93)

"Setting a cap like this is a little like a man or woman bringing home

a paycheck but not knowing how many children he or she has to feed." 

--Sybil Goldrick, co-director, Command Trust Network, on global

settlement proposed by silicone breast implant manufacturers. CURE

Comment: This is CURE's criticism of global budgeting and spending

caps under so-called health care reform. ($4.75 Billion Proposed for

Breast Implant Cases, Sandra Boodman, Washington Post Health, 9/21/93)

"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)

"As the US courts prepare to deal with challenges to bans on

physician-assisted suicide, Canada's high court has set a precedent by

upholding such bans. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops...

said they particularly appreciated the (Supreme Court's) 'strong

statements on the protection and sanctity of human life and concern

for the most vulnerable. To accept killing as a private matter of

individual choice is to diminish respect for all human life, to dull

our consciences, and to dehumanize society,' the bishops said." (Right

to Suicide Nixed by court, Our Sunday Visitor, 10/17/93)

"We don't have much time. I don't think that Jack has long to live.

He's not doing well. He's very haggard, very cold. To me, he is very

weak. He didn't have a lot to start out with."  Geoffrey Fieger, Dr.

Jack Kevorkian's lawyer on his infamous client's juice-and-water-only

"hunger" strike. CURE Comment: We would agree that a doctor who kills

his patients is "very cold;" a counselor who encourages those

depressed by ailments and abandonment to embrace self destruction as

the solution is "very weak;" and an advocate of draining the blood

from comrades on the battle field "didn't have a lot to start out

with;" but what is truly reprehensible is puppet master Fieger

describing his marionette's pseudo-martyrdom as "exercising his final

autonomy to live or die as a slave." (Kevorkian's Release Demanded,

Martinsburg Journal, 11/7/93)

"I think they've reduced the issue of suicide and assisted suicide to

a hysterical bunch of rhetoric that has no meaning. If I can get him

out of jail I think my $2,000 is well spent."  John DeMoss, the

attorney who posted cash for Dr, Jack Kevorkian's $20,000 bond. On the

day he was released, Kevorkian who claimed he was disappointed to

leave jail said he expects to return as a result of his role in the

death of an Ann Arbor, MI woman in his Royal Oak apartment. (Kevorkian

Freed After Non-Supporter Posts Bond, Martinsburg Journal, 11/9/93)

                                      

                            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)

"Ken Yuasa admits he used healthy Chinese for practice surgery during

World War II, removed parts of their brains, and even shot prisoners

in order to demonstrate how to remove bullets. As a Japanese army

doctor, Yuasa said, he tested the effectiveness of anesthetics on two

healthy farmers and practiced a tracheotomy. His colleagues cut their

arms, legs, and intestines into pieces, and then stitched them back

together again. After the surgery practice, the doctors killed their

'patients,' strangling one with a belt when he survived the injection

of an anesthetic into a vein...Hundreds of other doctors and nurses

conducted similar experiments in Shanxi Province alone, he said. 'Most

never have recognized their crime because it was 'justice.'"...Yuasa

said...the Japanese conducted mass medical experiments on thousands of

captive, otherwise healthy subjects. Most notorious is Unit 731,

which...killed at least 3,000 Chinese, Russians, Koreans, and

Mongolians in top-secret experiments that involved injections of

various germs, such as anthrax, typhus, and dysentery; human

vivisection; and shrapnel-induced gangrene. Many of those who survived

the experiments were executed later so they would not talk." (Doctor

of Death, Mari Yamaguchi, Washington Times, 9/18/93)

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)

Among the 34 states with the death penalty, only Maryland uses the gas

chamber exclusively. Virginia uses an electric chair, while the

District of Columbia has no death penalty. Maryland's gubernatorial

commission says a lethal injection option will bring Maryland in line

with other states, and Gov. William Donald Shaefer's spokesman Page

Boinest says he supports lethal injections as more "cost-efficient." 

Gary Bair, the commission's chairman, agrees it is "less expensive."

But Diann Rust-Tierney, director of the Capital Punishment Project of

the American Civil Liberties Union, says execution by injection

"raises some thorny ethical questions for members of the medical

profession, since it involves medical technology." CURE Comment:

Traditionally the AMA has found physician participation as executioner

unethical. CURE opposes capital punishment by lethal injection because

it blurs the role of doctor and executioner. (Maryland Panel Urges

Lethal Injection, Richard Tapscott, Washington Post, 10/6/93)

                             It's the Law

"Each small step can make a difference. To all Americans I say 'Don't

be fearful, don't be afraid of what it takes to comply with the ADA.

Be reasonable, be thoughtful, and be caring, and you can comply." --

Janet Reno, Attorney General. "Meanwhile, Health and Human Services

Secretary Donna Shalala announced that Bob Williams, an advocate for

the disabled who was born with cerebral palsy, was chosen to lead the 

federal Administration on Developmental Disabilities...Williams, 36,

comes to HHS from the United Cerebral Palsy Associations Inc." (Reno

Checks Out Businesses, Morning Herald, 7/27/93)

                             Mal-Practice

Conventional wisdom among physicians notwithstanding, poor patients

are not more likely to sue doctors for poor practice. According to

Harvard researchers, the poor and near-poor are only about 10% as apt

to sue for malpractice, even when they are victims of serious,

ngeligent injuries, since they have less access to legal

representation. Older patients are also less likely to file

malpractice suits. CURE Comment: By eliminating or restricting

contingency fees, malpractice tort reformers would compound the

discrimination poor victims of medical negligence face by virually

eliminating their slight access to competent legal counsel. (Poor Are

Less Likely to Sue Their Doctors, Sandra Boodman, WP Health, 10/26/93)

                            Under the Dome

"Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) has withdrawn as a sponsor of a key

abortion rights bill, further complicating the measures prospects in

Congress and setting off race and class alarms within the abortion

rights movement...The bill, known as the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA),

would ban most state restrictions on abortions...The National

Organization for Women (NOW), which asked Moseley-Braun to drop her

name from the measure, does not support the bill because it  believes

the legislation does not protect teenagers and the poor...A House

staff member who works on abortion issues put it more bluntly: 'We

have a real danger of making FOCA the white women's Freedom of Choice

Act or the rich women's Freedom of Choice Act.'" (Senator Drops

Support for Abortion Rights Bill, Kevin Merida, WP, 7/10/93) 

"Mayor [Sharon Pratt] Kelly is taking a lot of heat for proposing

changes in local law, including modification of the provision

entitling the mentally ill to treatment 'in the least restrictive

environment.' That particular legal right, which a federal judge

interpreted as being implied in a congressional statute 17 years ago,

would be altered to give the city discretion in determining when and

to whom which mental services should be provided." CURE Comment: The

same city officials already found derelict in their care for mentally

ill citizens by the courts? Meanwhile, mental health advocates charge

"the proposed changes will take the city back to that unhappy era when

mentally ill patients were warehoused in hospitals or cut adrift in

the streets with nothing in between." (Caring for the City's Mentally

Ill, editorial, Washington Post, 7/12/93)

"Public interest has focussed on the uses of DNA testing in bringing

criminals to justice...It is an equally valuable tool in establishing

innocence. There is still scientific controversy about the technology,

especially the probabilities of one person's DNA being identical to

another's. Testimony has ranged from 1 in 500 to 1 in 739 billion.

There is also concern that some testers may not be sufficiently

trained and some labs not consistently accurate...Sen. Paul Simon [D-

IL} and Rep. Don Edwards [D-CA]...have offered identical bills to

create an advisory board to recommend standards for testing methods

and for labs and analysts...Sen. Simon is working toward its inclusion

in Pres. Clinton's expected crime package. But omnibus bills,

especially those that contain highly controversial measures such as

habeas corpus reform, the death penalty, and gun control, tend to get

bogged down. The DNA proposal is too important to be lost in the

shuffle. It should be part of any package that is passed, or it should

be considered on its own and approved." (Standards for DNA Testing,

editorial, Washington Post, 9/3/93)

"Maryland is not now a suicide haven, and I want to work with

interested members of the legislature and others to keep it that way."

--Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr., urging the General

Assembly to follow the majority of states in enacting laws outlawing

assisted suicide. (MD Law Sought on Assisted Suicide, WP, 9/9/93)

According to testimony before the House Subcommittee on Regulation,

Business Opportunities, and Technology, pressing problems facing the

tissue transplant industry include: poor tracking of transplant

recipients, inadequate testing of donors, improper removal of tissue

from donors (i.e., without family approval), use of transplants

without recipient knowledge, and import of tissue from unknown foreign

sources. (Congress Looks at Tissue Transplants, Sally Squires,

Washington Post Health, 10/19/93)

"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)

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Special Editions include Abled, AIDS, Cancer, Family, Health Care,

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