The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 03, 1984, Page Page 8, Image 8
Page 8 ? December 3, 1984 THE GAMECOCK
Artificial heart:
unchartered waters
Students who complain that humanities courses
are not relevant or applicable to their lives should
consider the story of William Schroeder, the man
who recently received the world's second successful
artificial heart transplant. His story is a real-life example
of why knowledge of the human condition,
past and present, is the most important lesson
universities can offer.
Schroeder is alive and well, drinking beer and
ready to soon test a portable pump for his manmade
heart that will let him leave the Lousiville,
Ky., hospital he's now confined to. He is a lucky
man.
The Humana Corporation, parent organization
of the hospital that performed the operation, has
announced it will pay for 100 more such
transplants. But who are the patients Humana will
help? Who at the corporation and its hospitals will
decide who will get the life-saving operation?
What will they tell the 101st potential transplant
recipient, especially if he is, say, a Kentucky coal
miner who can't possibly afford the enormous expenses
of a heart transplant?
The questions Humana faces will eventually face
society as a whole. Will a dying person be denied an
artificial heart because he or she can't afford the
costs? Will the decisions be left only to doctors, or
will others ? clergymen, psychologists,
-u:i 1 ' "
pniHjsupiiers ? nave some say; Will parents be
favored over single people, and will the old be
denied transplants because younger people probably
have more years of life ahead of them?
Should it be left to "nature" and let anyone conniving
enough get a transplant? Should it become
social Darwinism of the highest order?
These questions are similar to those regarding
more common medical procedures ? kidney
transplants, for example ? but yrf are different. A
kidney disease victim can survive away from a
dialysis machine; a sufferer of severe heart disease
usually cannot. We are moving into uncharted
waters.
Artificial heart transplants may become as common
as kidnev fmncnlnntc r?r ai-tifir?iol KoortP iA
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be made so cheaply that they are no longer a scarce
commodity. But that day is not here, and probably
won't be for at least several years. We will be in
these waters for a long time, and we'll be deeper in
before we find our way out.
We have no map for this area of ethics and
societal decision-making, but the route is like ones
traveled before, by persons now alive only in
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maiwiy, i wuu nvcu oniy in me mma or an artist.
Philosphers have considered the meaning of life
and death and the value of human life for literally
hundreds of centuries. Religious leaders have applied
their faith to the problems. None of these
thinkers, of course, have faced our specific problem,
but their ideas are rungs we can climb to the
decisions we face now and will face. The rungs are
in this universitv anH nthprc
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off, put together and used.
Gamecock
Editor in Chief
David Hill
Managing Editor !
Leslie J. Dunson
Copy Desk Chief Ron Brackett Copy Editor Lynn Cusick
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Asst. News Editor Ann Farmer Copy Editor Laura Dannhardt
Entertain. Editor Marisa Porto Copy Editor Crystal Chapman
H5si. cm. tcmor . noDeri u uonnor Uopy Editor Kip Botts
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Letters should be no longer than 300 words and guest editorials should be limited
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IV vin> imn.nu.uif euujuti liu lunyol mail IUUI lypou |)Sy?. COllOfS 0(10 QU0SI
editorials MUST be signed with th? writer's name, telephone number, mailing eddress,
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We reserve the right to edit guest editorials and letters.
Address tetters end columns to: Opinion Page Editor, Gamecock, Drawer A, USC,
Columbia, S C. 29208.
- X'T.I " ' V
Student media
To the Editor:
I have been reading
The Gamecock since I
first arrived at the USC campus in
1980, and I look forward to each
publication. At times it makes very interesting
reading, but what I see, or
should I say, what I don't see are
enough pictures dealing with the black
population on campus.
It is true that blacks are a minority
here, but we are here! The Gamecock
is supposed to be a university p \per,
and we as black students are greatly
Alcohol comm
To the Editor:
The tone of a long letter you recently
published from an official of the S.C.
Commission, on Alcohol and Drug
Abuse about the age-to-drink laws is
symptomatic of the disease of generationitis
that impels some older people
to order the young, "Do as I say ? not
as I do."
! - 4 r . '?
i nis savior 01 me young says uui is
the leading cause of deaths for ages 15
to 24; yet he only wants to raise the
drinking age to 21. Why doesn't he
A weekend of
Mine was a weekend well spent.
I attended several sessions of USC's
tional Studies' Nuclear Winter confer
Saturday afternoon, and Friday night I w
ment of Theater and Speech's presentat
TU ~ ? * -1! -l *
i tic amazing imng is inai 1 uiu nen
doubt that I would have gone to either
I went to the conference because it w
my GINT classes, and I went to the p
broke and the girl 1 went with had free
That's a shame.
But it's a problem that I didn't invent,
that only I will spread. Apathy among
been here and always will. Sure, there's
went to the play and the conference wh
not enough.
While everyone makes sure they go to
Black Magic at work, why is it that so f
uiui^o 11leti i^vfuii^ a unit iiiuugiiii
To be honest, I dreaded going to the
posium. I mean, who wants to talk abo
tion for three days?
tm mmmmmuaatmrnrntttm
VJELl. 1 FIND IT APPALLING...
WHY CANT ADVANCED NATIONS
LIKE OURS Com UP WITH SOME
EFFICIENT WW TO DELIVER
RDD?THANK VOU. NGUYEN ?
" TO STARVING PEOPLE IN
. THE THIRD WORLD?
t h
Letters
overlook blacks
misrepresented.
If a person who didn't attend USC
were tr? lnr>lf thmnoh "The> ntvtonnnlr
the Garnet and Black, (which is the
school's yearbook), or any other
publication the school distributes, that
person would probably assume that
there are only a few black students
here. However, if that person were to
visit the campus, it would be clear that
there is a large number of black
students attending USC.
This is not to say that we are totally
Avrli lHaH f rr\m
VAV1UUVU Ill/Ill J /II. WMf/ICtl/tA aiiu
issioner ignores
raise the "legal" age to 24 ? or does
he plan to do that a little later?
There's not much else 15-to 24-yearolds
can die of. But how does DUI
compare to heart failure, et cetera, in
his age group? As the old saying goes,
"Statistics don't lie ? but liars can use
statistics."
He cites a long list of laws proposed
by lawyer-legislators to yield highpriced
legal fees ? not to end DUI.
Sweden is eliminating DUI with oneyear
prison sentences, for all ages.
beating the apa\
il Instead, it turned ou
tually stimulating thai
hn Flffinttr -yardpass.
" Professor Peter Sed
mended for organizing
; editor variably interesting and
I felt like 1 was part of tl
time when I, along with
ing on with this topic.
Institute of Interna- But would I have gc
ence on Friday and The play was equall;
ent to see the Depart- college productions are
ion of "Working." duce, and that's ridicu
her by choice, and I
if I didn't have to. "Working" was one
as required in one of in a long time. Becai
>lay because I'm flat soon, there was a trem
passes. mances. And when I w
were filled.
, and it's not a disease It was only because i
; students has always two more empty seats
plenty of people who USC has a tremend<
o didn't have to, but four not-so-long years
I'll be leaving a cor
football games to see everyone in it.
ew take advantage of No one can do ev<?rvi
it never hurts to do son:
Nuclear Winter sym- do.
ut death and destruc* And sometimes that
worth doing.
on campus
other publications. They feature
blacks in sports sections and maybe in
an occasional crowd scene; it's as if the
writers don't realize that there are
many black activities on campus.
The Gamecock, Garnet and Black
and other interested university publications,
if you have problems finding us,
ask us where any of the many black activities
are held; or even better, just
take off your lens cap! "WE ARE
HERE!"
Vincent Heed
Sociology Senior
basic issue
And, like many others, he completely
ignores the most basic issue here:
We cannot lawfully abridge the constitutional
rights of an entire category
of citizens, by age or any other
classification, simply because some of
that category violate some particular
law.. The solution is to stop the violation
of the law, not abridge the rights
of innocents who do not violate the
law.
James Galloway
Special studies
thy monster
t to be something a little more intellec1
waiting for Mike Hold to throw a
erberg and his staff should be comthe
program ? the speakers were inI
the dialogue informal enough so that I
le program. The conference comes at a
i everyone else, should know what's gome
unless I haH trv? Nln
y fulfilling. There's a stupid myth that
: inferior to what professionals can prolous.
of the best stage productions I've seen
lse these people will be professionals
endous amount of heart in the perforent
to see the show, only half the seats
ny wallet was empty that there weren't
in that audience.
jus amount to offer and it's taken me
to realize it. When I graduate in May,
nmunity that uniquely conforms to
thing or even care to do everything, but
letning other than what you'd normally
something turns out to be surprisingly