Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Mon, Sep 14 1992 Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 04:32:03 EDT Message-ID: 09-14 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Sept. 14, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Monday morning in USA TODAY: Transplants, Arms sales. TODAY'S DEBATE - TRANSPLANTS: USA TODAY'S OPINION: MDNM When surgeons announced this summer that they'd given a man a baboon liver, many people felt profound unease. ... But so many human lives are at stake ... Doctors must find out whether such implants could extend human life. ... In our culture, any human life is more important than any animal's. Using animals in medical testing has speeded progress toward new vaccines that curbed polio, diphtheria and other killers. Transplants from primates, which share 90% of human genes, are a sensible extension of that practice. ... The baboon-liver recipient died after 71 days, after a stroke. But his case once again proves the potential. That he was HIV-positive ... was irrelevant when the donor was an animal. The man was, in fact, a prime candidate for the surgery: Doctors thought his hepatitis would attack any human liver but believed baboon livers were immune. If they're right, think what that could mean to the thousands who need organs beyond what donors have supplied - but which primates might provide. Maiming animals just to help perfect cologne or makeup is repulsive. Using them to try to extend human life is not. ... If the choices are hard, they're also both clear and worth making. OTHER VIEW: CARLA BENNETT, staff writer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: In their grasp for glory, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center experimenters concealed the critical fact that the patient into whom they implanted a baboon liver was HIV positive. An impaired immune system was just what they needed to make the operation appear successful. ... Other self-serving vivisectors squander our health funds similarly in laboratories across the USA, bypassing desperately needed but non-lucrative clinical investigations of ways to prevent or reverse organ diseases. For example, medical students average less than three hours' training in nutrition. ... Yet we continue to indulge in hazardous lifestyles ... and then look to animal transplanters to deliver a quick fix. They can't. ... The biggest immorality regards the animals, who are not responsible for our ills. ... warehoused for years, often alone in cages where they can barely move. ... The baboon killed for his liver had been imprisoned his entire 15-year life. The real cost of the Pittsburgh sideshow was the quality of life of a trusting, vulnerable young man and his loved ones, the imprisonment and slaying of a baboon and all the "practice" animals before him, and the future well-being of countless people and animals. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON ARMS SALES TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES: ROANOKE, Va., Patricia Fuqua-Ames, 49, railway clerk: Can't we do something else for foreign countries besides send arms? We've been in trouble for arms sales before. That's just recently coming to light. It's something you really have to think about. I don't like the cynical way Bush is using these planes to get votes. PORTLAND, Ore., F. Hays Boyce, 77, Realtor: Yes. The economy is beginning to perk up, but we need some revenue right now. I don't see any danger in selling the planes to Taiwan and Saudi Arabia. It probably won't make regional conflicts worse. SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Myles Cameron, 36, radio personality: I think they're going to keep the Middle East more stable, so they're a necessary evil. It's important to keep the oil open. If it can keep us out of the region, by having the Saudis powerful, then it's a good deal. DES MOINES, Iowa, Jeff Good, 21, student: I wouldn't favor sales, although they'd be beneficial to certain industries. Weapons only have one purpose - to kill or hurt people. It sure can't help regional conflicts any. People don't have a good idea of what we are supporting in Saudi Arabia. It's tyranny. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Suzanne Thompson, 59, retired worker: I just don't buy it. We should take care of home first. Everything he is doing now is political. It's not going to create American jobs. It's going to create money for those in power. Issues & Debate Editor: Susan M. Andrews. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM